Microbial changes linked to the accelerated degradation of the herbicide atrazine in a range of temperate soils.

ABSTRACT: Accelerated degradation is the increased breakdown of a pesticide upon its repeated application, which has consequences for the environmental fate of pesticides. The herbicide atrazine was repeatedly applied to soils previously untreated with s-triazines for >5 years. A single application of atrazine, at an agriculturally relevant concentration, was sufficient to induce its rapid dissipation. Soils, with a range of physico-chemical properties and agricultural histories, showed similar degradation kinetics, with the half-life of atrazine decreasing from an average of 25 days after the first application to <2 days after the second. A mathematical model was developed to fit the atrazine-degrading kinetics, which incorporated the exponential growth of atrazine-degrading organisms. Despite the

SUBMITTER: Yale RL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5383679 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature