Atrazine Leaching from Biochar-amended Soils

Download or read book Atrazine Leaching from Biochar-amended Soils written by Kyle Brook Delwiche and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The herbicide atrazine is used extensively throughout the United States for weed control, and is a widespread ground water and surface water contaminant. Biochar has been shown to strongly sorb organic compounds, and could provide a way to reduce atrazine leaching. Using lab and field experiments, we studied how biochar impacts atrazine leaching under increasingly heterogeneous soil conditions. Lab-scale soil columns dosed with biochar, atrazine, and simulated rain demonstrated that biochar application does reduce atrazine leaching. Both homogenized and undisturbed soil cores demonstrated lower atrazine leaching with biochar addition, though the increased variability in results for the undisturbed cores masked the statistical significance of this finding. We attribute increased variability to the increased complexity of the soil pore structure. Field plot treatments included biochar, acidified biochar, peat plus biochar mixture, and peat moss. Mean groundwater atrazine concentrations were 34% and 53% lower for biochar and acidified biochar plots, respectively, relative to the control plots; the acidified biochar plots were significantly lower (p=0.0056). Plots receiving peat plus biochar showed no reduction, indicating taht organic matter may compete for biochar sorption sites. Peat moss alone had no effect on atrazine leaching. We conclude that biochar application.