Predictive quality of 26 pesticide risk indicators and one flow model: A multisite assessment for water contamination.

Stakeholders need operational tools to assess crop protection strategies in regard to environmental impact. The need to assess and report on the impacts of pesticide use on the environment has led to the development of numerous indicators. However, only a few studies have addressed the predictive quality of these indicators.

Do constructed wetlands in grass strips reduce water contamination from drained fields?

This study evaluates the efficiency of two small constructed wetlands installed in the regulatory grass strips between a drained plot and a river. The observed nitrate removal efficiencies were independent of the season or type of constructed wetland and ranged from 5.4 to 10.

Degradation of atrazine in aqueous medium by electrocatalytically generated hydroxyl radicals. A kinetic and mechanistic study.

Oxidative degradation of atrazine by hydroxyl radicals (()OH) was studied in aqueous medium. ()OH were formed in situ from electrochemically generating Fenton's reagent by an indirect electrochemical advanced oxidation process. Identification and evolution of seven main aromatic metabolites and four short-chain carboxylic acids were performed by using liquid chromatography analyses.

A comparison of five pesticides adsorption and desorption processes in thirteen contrasting field soils.

Batch adsorption and desorption experiments were performed using thirteen agricultural soil samples and five pesticides. Experimental data indicated a gradient in pesticide adsorption on soil: trifluralin >> 2,4-D > isoproturon> atrazine >> bentazone. Atrazine, isoproturon and trifluralin adsorption were correlated to soil organic matter content (r2 = 0.

Sulcotrione versus atrazine transport and degradation in soil columns.

A soil column experiment under outdoor conditions was performed to monitor the fate of 14C-ring-labelled sulcotrione, 2-(2-chloro-4-mesylbenzoyl)cyclohexane-1,3-dione and atrazine, 6-chloro-N2-ethyl-N4-isopropyl-1,3,5-triazine-2,4-diamine, in water leachates and in the ploughed horizon of a sandy loam soil. Two months after treatment, the cumulative amounts of herbicide residues leached from the soil were 14.5% and 7% of the applied radioactivity for sulcotrione and atrazine, respectively.

Time effect on bentazone sorption and degradation in soil.

Previous sorption/desorption batch experiments have indicated that bentazone is weakly sorbed by soils. In addition, field experiments have shown that 4% of the bentazone sprayed can be leached to drainage water. In order to complete bentazone characterisation, we have assessed the effect of time on its behaviour in contrasting soils.