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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Oxford, Mississippi » National Sedimentation Laboratory » Water Quality and Ecology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #303464
Title: Diazinon and permethrin mitigation across a grass-wetland buffer

Author
item Moore, Matthew
item KROGER, ROBERT - Mississippi State University
item Locke, Martin
item Lizotte, Richard
item Testa Iii, Sam
item COOPER, CHARLES - Retired ARS Employee

Submitted to: Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/8/2014
Publication Date: 10/10/2014
Publication URL: https://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/62056
Citation: Moore, M.T., Kroger, R., Locke, M.A., Lizotte Jr, R.E., Testa Iii, S., Cooper, C.M. 2014. Diazinon and permethrin mitigation across a grass-wetland buffer. Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology. 93(5):574-579. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-014-1357-8.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-014-1357-8

Interpretive Summary: Pesticides in agricultural runoff can contaminate fish and other aquatic life in rivers, lakes and streams. Farmers utilize various management practices to reduce the risk of pesticide runoff, and edge-of-field vegetated buffers are one such practice. An experiment was conducted to determine if a grass-wetland buffer could help clean up two different insecticides found in runoff. Results were dependent upon the particular pesticide chemistry. Very little of the organophosphate was retained in the buffer, but twice the amount of the pyrethroid was retained in the buffer as compared to the unvegetated control. Challenges in pesticide mitigation still exist, and these results indicate the need for integrated, multiple management practices to be used on agricultural fields susceptible to runoff.

Technical Abstract: Various management practices have been proposed to help alleviate deleterious effects of pesticides associated with agricultural runoff. Vegetated buffers of different designs are often used as edge-of-field treatment practices. Two experimental systems, a control (no vegetation) and a grass-wetland buffer system, were evaluated for their ability to retain diazinon and permethrin associated with a simulated storm runoff. Neither system was particularly efficient at retaining diazinon mass (9.5% retention in control; 9.6% retention in buffer). Grass-wetland buffers retained 83% and 85% of cis- and trans-permethrin masses, respectively, while the control only retained 39% and 44% of cis- and trans-permethrin masses, respectively. Half-distances for both permethrin isomers were approximately 26-30% shorter in grass buffers (22-23 m) than in the control (32 m). The current study demonstrates challenges in remediating multiple pesticides with a single management practice. By using suites of management practices, especially those employing vegetation, better pesticide mitigation may be accomplished.