Effect of soil organic amendments on the behavior of bentazone and tricyclazole

The effect of soil amendment with different organic residues from olive oil production on the sorption and leaching of two pesticides used in rice crops (bentazone and tricyclazole) was compared in order to understand their behavior and to improve soil properties by recycling an abundant agricultural residue in Andalucia (S. Spain). A residue from olive oil production (AJ), the organic compost derived from this organic waste (CA) and a biochar (BA) made from CA were used. A soil devoted to rice cultivation, IFAPA (I), was amended at 2% (w/w) of each amendment individually (I + AJ, I + CA and I + BA). In order to evaluate the effect of dissolved organic matter (DOM) from these amendments on bentazone and tricyclazole behavior, the DOM from the amendments was extracted, quantified and characterized by fluorescence spectroscopy and FT-IR. The affinity of DOM for soil surfaces was evaluated with (I) soil and two other soils of different physicochemical properties, ARCO (A) and GOAD (G). These studies revealed differences in DOM quantity, quality and affinity for the used soils among amendments which can explain the different sorption behavior observed for tricyclazole in the amended soils. Leaching assays under saturated/unsaturated conditions revealed a slight delay of bentazone in I + CA and I + BA soils when compared to I + AJ, that can be related to the higher DOM content and much lower specific surface area of AJ. In contrast, tricyclazole was not detected in any of the leachates during the leaching assay. Extraction of tricyclazole residues from soil columns showed that the fungicide did not move below 5 cm in the higher sorptive systems (I + CA, I + BA). The sorption of DOM from amendments on soil during the transport process can decrease the mobility of the fungicide by changing the physicochemical properties of the soil surface whose behavior may be dominated by the adsorbed DOM. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.