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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Stuttgart, Arkansas » Harry K. Dupree Stuttgart National Aquaculture Research Cntr » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #129273
Title: HERBICIDE DRIFT AND CHANNEL CATFISH PONDS.

Author
item PERSCHBACHER, PETER - UAPB
item Ludwig, Gerald

Submitted to: World Aquaculture Magazine
Publication Type: Trade Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/10/2002
Publication Date: 12/1/2002
Citation: PERSCHBACHER, P., LUDWIG, G.M. HERBICIDE DRIFT AND CHANNEL CATFISH PONDS.. WORLD AQUACULTURE MAGAZINE. 2002. v.33 (4). p.24-26.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: A variety of herbicides applied aerially during the cultivation of crops were investigated to determine the effect of drift on water quality and plankton populations in fishponds. During 1994-1995, we tested eight soybeen herbicides including formasefen, aciflourfen, glyphosate, bentazon, imazauin, fluazifop, clethodim, and chlorimuron to see if they adversely affected pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, total ammonia- nitrogen, nitrite, chlorophyll and pheophytin a levels and composition of the zooplankton community. During 2000-2001, the effects of eleven rice herbicides, including thiobencarb, molinate, bensulfurion methyl, halosulfuron, 2,4-D amine, aciflourfen, triclopyr, quinclorac, pendamethalin, clomazone, and a dry flowable formulation of propanil on the same pond variables were determined. Concentrations of the herbicides tested were equivalent to the full concentration sprayed on soybeans or rice and 1/10th and 1/100th of that concentration. The herbicides were sampled from 550-l mesocosms filled with water from a fish culture pond. Samples of variables were taken before chemical application and at 24 and 48 hours after application. Except for propanil at direct spray concentrations, none of the herbicides caused a measurable change in the water chemistry or the phytoplankton or zooplankton communities. Propanil at direct spray concentrations reduced photosynthesis levels by 75% within 24 hours and reduced dissolved oxygen levels by 48 hours. Although primary productivity was reduced, chlorophyll a levels were higher in treated water. By 48 hours rotifer and copepod numbers also increased above that in untreated controls.