Environmental context. The wide use of pesticides for pest and weed control contributes to their presence in underground and surface waters, which has led to a continuously growing interest in their environmental fate. Soils play a key role in the transfer of these compounds from the sprayer to the water as a result of their capacity to retain pesticides depending on the soil components. The knowledge of soil composition should enable one to predict pesticide behaviour in the environment.

Abstract. Eight calcareous soils of Champagne vineyards (France) were studied to investigate the adsorption of the herbicide terbumeton (TER). A preliminary characterisation of the soil samples using X-ray diffraction (XRD), elemental and textural analyses, revealed a wide range of soil properties for the selected samples. The adsorption isotherms of TER were plotted for all samples. The determination of soil properties, which significantly correlated with the K_d distribution coefficient, allowed identification of organic matter and CaCO₃ as the two main soil components that govern the retention of the herbicide. Organic matter was the predominant phase involved in the retention but its role was limited by the presence of calcite. Finally, the ratio of CaCO₃ content to organic matter content was proposed as a useful parameter to predict the adsorption of terbumeton in chalky soils. The evolution of K_d as a function of this ratio was successfully described using an empirical model.