The herbicides bentazone and S-metolachlor used for the control of broad leaf weeds in crops, such as corn and soybean have been detected in surface and ground waters in Europe and USA. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of an olive oil mill waste used as soil amendment at two rates (5 and 10% w/w) on soil porosity, and the fate of the herbicides in two different soils. Soil porosity increased upon amendment. The organic waste favored S-metolachlor sorption with a 5-6 fold increase and leaching decreased (from 61 to 4% in sandy soil and 40 to 10 in alluvial soil). However, we did not observe any effect on sorption and leaching of bentazone as compared to the unamended soil. Dissipation of both herbicides decreased on the soils amended with the olive oil by-product. Thus, this waste can be used to prevent water contamination by S-metolachlor.

Comunicación AGRO 82 presentada en el 13th IUPAC International Congress of Pesticide Chemistry Crop, Environment, and Public Health Protection: Technologies for a Changing World August 10-14, 2014 San Francisco, California, USA

MINECO (AGL2010-21421 and FPI fellowship), JA (AGR-264) and CSIC (JAE-doc fellowship) cofinanced with FEDER-FSE (OP2007-13).

Peer Reviewed