Publication

An assessment of potential pesticide transmission, considering the combined impact of soil texture and pesticide properties: A meta-analysis

McGinley, John
Harmon O’Driscoll, Jenny
Healy, Mark G.
Ryan, Paraic C.
Mellander, Per Eric
Morrison, Liam
Callery, Oisin
Siggins, Alma
Citation
McGinley, John, Harmon O’Driscoll, Jenny, Healy, Mark G., Ryan, Paraic C., Mellander, Per Eric, Morrison, Liam, Callery, Oisin, Siggins, Alma. (2022). An assessment of potential pesticide transmission, considering the combined impact of soil texture and pesticide properties: A meta-analysis. Soil Use and Management, 38(2), 1162-1171. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/sum.12794
Abstract
Pesticides are widely employed as a cost-effective means of reducing the impacts of undesirable plants and animals. The aim of this paper is to develop a risk ranking of transmission of key pesticides through soil to waterways, taking into account physiochemical properties of the pesticides (soil half-life, and water solubility), soil permeability, and the relationship between adsorption of pesticides and soil texture. This may be used as a screening tool for land managers, as it allows assessment of the potential transmission risks associated with the use of specified pesticides across a spectrum of soil textures. The twenty eight pesticides examined were differentiated into three groups: herbicides, fungicides and insecticides. The highest risk of pesticide transmission through soils to waterways is associated with soils containing 45% sand. In a small number of cases, the resulting transmission risk is not influenced by soil texture alone. For example, for Phenmedipham, the transmission risk is higher for clay soils than for silt loam. The data generated in this paper may also be used in the identification of critical area sources, which have a high likelihood of pesticide transmission to waterways. Furthermore, they have the potential to be applied to GIS mapping, where the potential transmission risk values of the pesticides can be layered directly onto various soil textures.
Publisher
Wiley
Publisher DOI
10.1111/sum.12794
Rights
CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IE