Degradation profile of azoxystrobin in Andisol soil: laboratory incubation

Abstract

The fate of azoxystrobin in soil under the effect of different temperature is of interest because application directions specify soil-surface treatments for number of agricultural pests. Temperature is an important factor governing the rate of degradation in soil pore. The purpose of this investigation was to understand better the effect of temperature on the degradation of azoxystrobin in Japanese Andisol soil. This was done through laboratory incubation of soil at three different temperatures (5 °C, 20 °C, 35 °C). First-order kinetics could be used to describe degradation of azoxystrobin under controlled condition of temperature (r2 ˃ 94). The results showed that, during the 120-day incubation period for azoxystrobin, 64%, 70%, and 78% of applied azoxystrobin were degraded at 5 °C, 20 °C, and 35 °C, respectively. By using the Arrhenius equation, the activation energy of degradation of azoxystrobin fungicide was calculated (7.48 ± 1.74 kJ mol−1) in soils, which confirm that temperature had a significant influence on the degradation rate. Q10 value of 1.11, for azoxystrobin, indicated that the response of fungicide dissipation to temperature was large. For azoxystrobin, there was a much larger difference in dissipation rates at 5 °C and 35 °C, indicating that biological and/or chemical degradation of azoxystrobin may have nearly reached its optimum at 35 °C.