Assessment of potential mobility of selected micropollutants in agricultural soils of the Czech Republic using their sorption predicted from soil properties

Radka Kodešová; Ganna Fedorova; Vít Kodeš; Martin Kočárek; Oleksandra Rieznyk; Miroslav Fér; Helena Švecová; Aleš Klement; Adam Bořík; Antonín Nikodem; Roman Grabic

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.161174

Assessment of potential mobility of selected micropollutants in agricultural soils of the Czech Republic using their sorption predicted from soil properties

Sci Total Environ. 2023 Mar 20:865:161174. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.161174. Epub 2022 Dec 28.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Dept. of Soil Science and Soil Protection, Kamýcká 129, CZ-16500 Prague 6, Czech Republic. Electronic address: kodesova@af.czu.cz.
² University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters, South Bohemian Research Centre of Aquaculture and Biodiversity of Hydrocenoses, Zátiší 728/II, CZ-38925 Vodňany, Czech Republic.
³ Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, Na Šabatce 2050/17, CZ-14306 Praha 4, Czech Republic.
⁴ Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Dept. of Soil Science and Soil Protection, Kamýcká 129, CZ-16500 Prague 6, Czech Republic.

PMID: 36586677
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.161174

Abstract

The sorption of organic contaminants in soils and sediment is a crucial factor affecting their mobility in the vadose zone environment. The Freundlich sorption isotherms were evaluated for eleven micropollutants and eight soils. The highest Freundlich sorption coefficients, K_F, were obtained for triclosan (324 ± 153 cm^3/nμg^1-1/ng^-1) followed by sertraline (120 ± 74), venlafaxine (74.3 ± 41.2), telmisartan (33.3 ± 13.6), atorvastatin (8.66 ± 4.78), bisphenol S (8.03 ± 4.87), lamotrigine (6.92 ± 3.02), 2-phenylbenzimidazole-5-sulfonic acid (3.77 ± 2.25), memantine (3.42 ± 1.64), 1-methyl-1H-benzotriazole (2.05 ± 0.99), and valsartan (0.88 ± 0.89). The K_F values for the individual compounds were correlated with soil properties. Multiple linear regressions were used to derive equations for predicting the K_F values using the soil properties. The first set of equations contained mainly properties with the strongest correlations with the K_F values, e.g., a base cation saturation for positively charged compounds or a hydrolytic acidity for negatively charged compounds. The second set of equations contained properties included in the map of agricultural soils of the Czech Republic. These equations always indicated positive correlations with oxidizable organic carbon and clay content. They also included either a negative or positive correlation with pH_KCl. A positive correlation with pH_KCl was obtained for venlafaxine, memantine, and sertraline, which were mostly positively charged. A negative correlation with pH_KCl was obtained for the remaining compounds. The second set of equations, the soil map, and the database of soil properties were used to predict the K_F value distributions within the Czech agricultural soils. It resulted in similar K_F distributions' patterns for valsartan, lamotrigine, atorvastatin, and telmisartan (with a positive correlation between K_F and hydrolytic acidity), which considerably differed from the K_F patterns for the other compounds. These maps were used to delineate areas with a leaching potential of the compounds toward groundwater that will serve as a tool for assessing a potential groundwater vulnerability.

Keywords: Antiseptic; Corrosion inhibitors; Pharmaceuticals; Soil types; Sorption isotherms; UV filters.