Abstract

There is very limited information about the effect of land use on sorption behaviour of organic chemicals. It has been documented that clearing natural vegetation and cropping soil typically decreases the original organic carbon (OC) content of soil. Because OC is one of the major parameters controlling pesticide sorption, the effects of land use on the sorption behaviour of fenamiphos and its 2 main metabolites, fenamiphos sulfone (f. sulfone) and fenamiphos sulfoxide (f. sulfoxide), together with fenarimol and azinphos methyl were investigated. Based on sorption isotherms for a subset of soils, using a range of concentrations (2.5, 5.0, 7.5, and 10 mg/L), the use of a single concentration (2 mg/L) was considered adequate to determine sorption coefficients. Generally the K_d values for fenamiphos were significantly (P < 0.005) higher than those of its 2 metabolites. The sorption coefficients decreased in the order: fenamiphos >> f. sulfone ≥  f. sulfoxide. As both metabolites can apparently move more easily through soil than fenamiphos, they would pose a greater risk to groundwater contamination. For all compounds, only weak relationships were determined between K_d and pH or %silt + clay. Similarly, the relationship between K_d and %OC was poor, when data from all soils were combined for analysis. However, a strong relationship was obtained between sorption coefficients and %OC for fenamiphos in market garden soils (r² = 0.76***). This was also the case for azinphos methyl and fenarimol, particularly in soils under native vegetation (r² = 0.71 and 0.73***, respectively). At a given OC content, the soils under Banksia bush generally showed greater sorption than those under market gardens. This effect became more pronounced with increasing OC content, suggesting that the nature and composition of the OC in soils under native vegetation are likely to be different from that in cultivated soils. Clearly the OC content is not an adequate parameter describing the complex interactions between pesticides and organic matter.