An Improved Indirect Procedure for Estimating Pesticide Volatility from Field Trials.

Conventional indirect approaches for estimating pesticide volatility from agricultural fields require an air dispersion model and near-field, temporal air concentration measurements. The model pesticide flux profile is chosen such that field observations are recovered. Ross et al.

Modeling approach to assess clustering impact on release rates of pesticides from microencapsulated products.

The pesticide release rate from polymer-encapsulated microcapsules is controlled by diffusion across the polymer membrane, membrane thickness, and pesticide loading. However, conditions for microcapsule clustering following conventional application practices and the impact of clustering on the overall release rate are often ignored. Microcapsules are delivered to target surfaces using water droplets as a carrier, and capillary-driven velocities arise within the deposited sessile drop as the water evaporates.

Predicting soil fumigant air concentrations under regional and diverse agronomic conditions.

SOFEA (SOil Fumigant Exposure Assessment system; Dow AgroSciences, Indianapolis, IN) is a new stochastic numerical modeling tool for evaluating and managing human inhalation exposure potential associated with the use of soil fumigants. SOFEA calculates fumigant concentrations in air arising from volatility losses from treated fields for large agricultural regions using multiple transient source terms (treated fields), geographical information systems (GIS) information, agronomic specific variables, user-specified buffer zones, and field reentry intervals. A modified version of the USEPA Industrial Source Complex Short Term model (ISCST3) is used for air dispersion calculations.

Determining kinetic and nonequilibrium sorption behavior for chlopyrifos using a hybrid batch/column experiment.

Pesticide mobility in soil is strongly coupled to the chemical's sorption characteristics. A modified soil column batch experiment was conducted to measure the transient nature of chlorpyrifos sorption and desorption from Cecil soil. This experimental system minimizes many shortcomings associated with obtaining sorption parameters by fitting soil column data to an advective-dispersive transport equation.

An ecological risk assessment for spinosad use on cotton.

Spinosad is a reduced-risk insecticide with a novel mode of action that provides an alternative to older classes of insecticides such as organophosphates, carbamates and pyrethroids. A comprehensive ecological risk assessment for spinosad use in US cotton crops is presented within a framework of tiered levels of refinement following the guidelines of the US EPA for ecological risk assessments. Toxicity information for a variety of species is documented and utilized, environmental concentrations estimated, and risk characterizations in the form of risk quotients are quantified.