Adsorption and mobility of linuron in soils as influenced by soil properties, organic amendments, and surfactants.

Adsorption and mobility of the herbicide linuron (3-3, 4-dichlorophenyl-1-methoxy-1-methylurea) in 35 irrigated soils with organic matter (OM) contents in the 0.43-2.59% range and in four natural soils with OM contents in the 4.16-11.69% range were studied using the batch equilibration technique. The adsorption isotherms were found to conform to the Freundlich adsorption equation. The Freundlich constant, K, and the distribution coefficient, K(d), were seen to be highly significantly correlated (p < 0.001) with the OM content when all soils or only those with an OM content above 2% were considered. There was also a significant correlation of K and K(d) with the OM content (p < 0.05) and of K(d) with the clay and silt plus clay contents (p < 0.1) when the soils with a OM content below 2% were considered. On the basis of the R(f)() values obtained by soil TLC, the pesticide was found to be slightly mobile in 77% and moderately mobile in 23% of the soils studied. The results of the leaching of linuron in soil columns unmodified and modified with two organic agricultural amendments, a city refuse compost, and two surfactants (one of them cationic and the other anionic) revealed that the leaching rate and the mass transfer of the herbicide to water were affected, increasing or decreasing according to the characteristics of the amendments and the doses added. These results also point to the usefulness of selected organic materials and surfactants in the development of physicochemical methods for preventing the pollution of soils, sediments and aquifers by hydrophobic pesticides.