Pesticide extraction from soil into runoff in North American and Australian croplands

D. Mark Silburn; M. H. Crawford

doi:10.1071/SR23148

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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Pesticide extraction from soil into runoff in North American and Australian croplands

D. Mark Silburn

^A ^B ^* and M. H. Crawford

^C ^D

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Department of Environment, Science and Innovation, PO Box 318, Toowoomba, Qld 4350, Australia.

^B Centre for Agricultural Engineering, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Qld, Australia.

^C Formerly Department of Resources, PO Box 318, Toowoomba, Qld 4350, Australia.

^D Landloch Pty Ltd, 19 Peace Street, Harlaxton, Qld 4350, Australia.

^* Correspondence to: mark.silburn@des.qld.gov.au

Handling Editor: Rai Kookana

Soil Research 62, SR23148 https://doi.org/10.1071/SR23148

Submitted: 20 July 2023 Accepted: 7 March 2024 Published: 4 April 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Context

Do some pesticides run off more than others? How does pesticide runoff vary with pesticide properties?

Aims

Improve understanding of pesticide runoff from croplands.

Methods

Concentrations in surface soil and in runoff from three Australian rainfall simulation studies and three rainfall simulation and five catchment studies in North American croplands were used. The ratio of event averaged runoff concentrations and the surface soil concentrations is the runoff extraction ratio.

Key results

Pesticide runoff concentrations were closely related to soil surface concentrations at the start of rainfall. Runoff extraction ratios were not significantly different for 13 pesticides with a wide range of properties, on gentle slopes (0–3%), but were significantly lower for three pesticides. On steeper slopes, runoff extraction was significantly greater for atrazine but lower for glyphosate and metolachlor. Low sloping, furrow irrigated fields had low sediment concentrations and low pesticide runoff concentrations for more tightly sorbed pesticides, but not for less sorbed pesticides. Runoff extraction was not significantly different for simulated and most catchment studies.

Conclusions

Similar runoff extraction ratios were due to similar hydrology and limited sediment concentrations. Different runoff extraction occurs on bare soil if (a) pesticides are leached from the runoff-mixing layer, requiring sorption coefficients less than two and significant infiltration, and no interflow, (b) sediment concentrations are either low (<2 g L⁻¹) or high (>100 g L⁻¹) and (c) pesticides have different concentration profiles in the runoff-mixing layer.

Implications

Conditions studied apply for croplands in the North American mid-west on silty soils and for Australian clay soils.

Keywords: croplands, herbicides, insecticides, partition coefficients, pesticide runoff, rainfall simulator, runoff risk, soil concentrations.

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