Soil organic matter, soil management systems, and pesticide fate
It is often difficult to predict the the fate and behaviour of pesticides in soil because of the interactions with natural organic matter in relation to its physico-chemical properties and structure and and the process by which the soil is managed. The fate of pesticides is influenced by the dynamics of sorption, binding and remobilization processes in the soil environment. Persistence, bioaccumulation, toxicity and transfer to surface and ground waters are key issues as the usage of pesticides in agricultural production can only increase because increased demands on agricultural land, particularly with regard to demands for food and feed production against that of biomass production for biofuels.
The session will focus on research undertaken in an integrated manner to elucidate the behaviour of sorption, binding and remobilization of pesticides in soil. This will promote a better understanding of the disparity between persistence values (e.g. DT50) of compounds tested at laboratory and field scales. Further, studies investigating the behaviour of pesticide molecules applied in different production systems e.g. till, no till, mulch systems, are also important.
We explicitly encourage contributions that tackle the elucidation of processes resulting in persistence or mobilization within the soil matrix. Biological, chemical as well as physicochemical process understanding addressed integratetively are of particular interest.