Trial of solar heating methods (solarization and biosolarization) to reduce persistence of neonicotinoid and diamide insecticides in a semiarid Mediterranean soil

Nuria Vela; José Fenoll; Ginés Navarro; Isabel Garrido; Simón Navarro

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.03.013

Trial of solar heating methods (solarization and biosolarization) to reduce persistence of neonicotinoid and diamide insecticides in a semiarid Mediterranean soil

Sci Total Environ. 2017 Jul 15:590-591:325-332. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.03.013. Epub 2017 Mar 7.

Authors

Nuria Vela¹, José Fenoll², Ginés Navarro³, Isabel Garrido², Simón Navarro⁴

Affiliations

¹ Grupo de Tecnologías Aplicadas a la Salud Ambiental, Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Católica de Murcia, 30107 Murcia, Spain.
² Grupo de Sostenibilidad y Calidad de Productos Hortofrutícolas, Instituto Murciano de Investigación y Desarrollo Agrario y Alimentario, 30150 Murcia, Spain.
³ Departamento de Química Agrícola, Geología y Edafología, Facultad de Química, Universidad de Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain.
⁴ Departamento de Química Agrícola, Geología y Edafología, Facultad de Química, Universidad de Murcia, 30100 Murcia, Spain. Electronic address: snavarro@um.es.

PMID: 28283291
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.03.013

Abstract

This paper reports the use of solar heating techniques, solarization (S) and biosolarization (BS) as a strategy for the environmental restoration of soils containing neonicotinoid, acetamiprid (AC), imidacloprid (IM) and thiamethoxam (TH), and diamide, chlorantraniliprole (CL) and flubendiamide (FB) insecticide residues. For this, a semiarid Mediterranean soil (Haplic calcisol) was covered with low-density polyethylene (LDPE) during the hot season, to raise the maximal soil temperatures. Compost from sheep manure (CSM), meat-processing waste (MPW) and sugar beet vinasse (SBV) were used as organic wastes. The results showed that both S and BS increase insecticide disappearance rates compared with the non-disinfected soil, the increase in soil temperature and added organic matter playing a key role. The dissipation rates of TH and AC in soil were satisfactorily described by first-order (monophasic) kinetics, while IM, CL and FB showed a deviation from exponential behaviour. For them, the best results were obtained applying biphasic kinetics with a rapid initial degradation followed by a slower decline of their residues. The findings suggest that S and BS (especially using MPW) can be considered as a valuable tool for enhancing the detoxification of soils polluted with these insecticides.

Keywords: Biosolarization; Insecticide dissipation; Mulching; Soil remediation; Solarization.