Imazaquin degradation and metabolism in a sandy loam soil amended with farm litters.

Imazaquin applied in legume crops has a long residual time in soil, which often impacts safety of the susceptible crops. To increase safety of imazaquin application, two composted litters, bovine manure (BM) and chicken manure (CM), were used to determine their effects on imazaquin environmental behavior by incorporating each kind of manure into the tested sandy loam soil at 10% (w/w). The degradation of imazaquin in BM- and CM-amended soil was about 2.4 and 1.5 times, respectively, faster than that in unamended soil. The half-lives of imazaquin in BM-amended soil varied between 6.7 and 15.4 d over the temperature range of 20 to 40 degrees C, and the degradation rate constant (k) increased by a factor of about 1.5 for every 10 degrees C change. Higher mix ratio did not significantly increase the degradation, and the optimal active degradation of imazaquin was observed approximately at the mix ratio of 10:1 of soil to BM. The different moisture levels had negligible effect on imazaquin degradation. In both unamended and BM-amended treatments, two metabolites were observed at 5, 10 and 30 d after treatment. One metabolite at retention time (RT) of 8.4 min was identified as 2-(4-hydroxyl-5-oxo-2-imidazolin-2-yl) quinoline acid, originating from the loss of isopropyl group and hydroxylation at the 4-position of imidazolinone ring. The other at RT of 12.9 min was identified as quinoline-2,3-dicarboxylic anhydride, resulting from detachment of imidazolinone ring and the forming of dicarboxylic anhydride. This finding suggested that the addition of farm litters into soil might be a good management option since it can not only increase soil fertility but also contribute to increase safety of imazaquin application to the following susceptible crops.