Abstract

Two different experiments, adsorption/desorption and runoff by rainfall simulation of four pesticides, such as alachlor, ethalfluralin, ethoprophos and pendimethalin were undertaken their runoff and erosion losses from sloped land and to assess the influence of their properties and environmental factors on them. The mobility of four pesticides and which phase they were transported by were examined in adsorption study, and the influence of rainfall pattern and sloping degree on the pesticide losses were evaluated in simulated rainfall study. Freundlich adsorption parameters (K) by the adsorption and desorption methods were 1.2 and 2.2 for ethoprophos, 1.5 and 2.6 for alachlor, respectively. And adsorption distribution coefficients (Kd) by the adsorption and desorption methods were 56 and 94 for ethalfluralin, and 104 and 189 for pendimethalin, respectively. K or Kd values of pesticides by the desorption method which were desorbed from the soil after thoroughly mixing, were higher than these ones by the adsorption method which pesticides dissolved in water were adsorbed to the soil. Another parameter (1/n), representing the linearity of adsorption, in Freundlich equation for the pesticides tested ranged from 0.96 to 1.02 by the desorption method and from 0.87 to 1.02 by the adsorption method. Therefore, the desorption method was more independent from pesticide concentration in soil solution than the adsorption method. By Soil Survey and Land Research Center (SSLRC)'s classification for pesticide mobility, alachlor and ethoprophos were classified into moderately mobile $(75{\leq}Koc 4000). Runoff and erosion loss of pesticides by three rainfall scenarios were from 1.0 to 6.4% and from 0.3 to 1.2% for alachlor, from 1.0 to 2.5% and from 1.7 to 10.1% for ethalfluralin, from 1.3 to 2.9% and from 3.9 to 10.8% for pendimethalin, and from 0.6 to 2.7% and from 0.1 % 0.3% for ethoprophos, respectively. Distribution of pesticides in soil profile were investigated after the simulated rainfall study. Alachlor and ethoprophos were leached to from 10 to 15 cm of soil layer, but ethalfluralin and pendimethalin were mostly remained at the top 5 cm of soil profile. The losses of the pesticides at 30% of sloping degree were from 0.2 to 1.9 times higher than those at 10%. The difference of their runoff loss was related with their concentration in runoff water while the difference of their erosion loss must be closely related with the quantity of soil eroded.

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