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ARS Home » Midwest Area » St. Paul, Minnesota » Soil and Water Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #333870
Title: Evaluation of individual and combined management practices to reduce the off-site transport of pesticides from golf course turf

Author
item Rice, Pamela
item HORGAN, BRIAN - University Of Minnesota
item Hamlin, Jennifer

Submitted to: Science of the Total Environment
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/1/2017
Publication Date: 4/1/2017
Citation: Rice, P.J., Horgan, B.P., Hamlin, J.L. 2017. Evaluation of individual and combined management practices to reduce the off-site transport of pesticides from golf course turf. Science of the Total Environment. 583:72-80. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.01.001.

Interpretive Summary: Stormwater runoff from managed biological systems can transport pesticides to surrounding surface waters. Pesticides are biologically active compounds used as an effective tool to control harmful pests that may devastate food, fiber and horticultural crops, native habitats, or carry infectious diseases. The detection of pesticides in areas where they have not been applied and their potential to result in adverse effects to non-target organisms at environmentally relevant levels has raised public concern and a need to provide methodologies to control their off-site transport. Experiments were designed to evaluate the effectiveness of individual and combined cultivation practices to reduce runoff volumes and the off-site transport of pesticides with runoff from turfgrass managed as a golf course fairway. Overall, the pesticide chemographs followed trends in agreement with mobility classifications associated with their soil organic carbon partition coefficient and the individual cultivation practices performed as well or better than the combined cultivation practices. In this study we evaluated the addition of verticutting (VC) to HTCC (HTCC+VC) in an attempt to further enhance infiltration and mitigate the off-site transport of pesticides with runoff from managed turf. Overall, greater or equal quantities of pesticides were transported with runoff from plots managed with hollow tine core cultivation followed by verticutting (HTCC + VC) compared to hollow tine core cultivation (HTCC) or verticutting (VC) alone. For the pesticides evaluated HTCC < VC < HTCC + VC for the off-site transport of the high mobility pesticides while HTCC=VC=HTCC + VC for the low mobility pesticides. It is likely the addition of VC following HTCC further increased compaction and reduced availability of recently exposed soil sorptive sites produced from the HTCC.Data from the present study contribute to the understanding of pesticide transport with runoff from managed turf and equip golf course managers with information when selecting management practices.

Technical Abstract: The detection of pesticides, associated with turfgrass management, in storm runoff and surface waters of urban watersheds has raised concerns regarding their source, potential environmental effects and a need for strategies to reduce their inputs. In previous research we discovered that hollow tine core cultivation (HTCC) was more effective than other management practices for reducing the off-site transport of pesticides with runoff from creeping bentgrass turf managed as a golf course fairway. This was primarily the result of enhanced infiltration and reduced runoff volumes associated with turf managed with hollow tines. In this study we evaluated the addition of verticutting (VC) to HTCC (HTCC+VC) in an attempt to further enhance infiltration and mitigate the off-site transport of pesticides with runoff from managed turf. Overall, greater or equal quantities of pesticides were transported with runoff from plots managed with HTCC+VC compared to HTCC or VC alone. For the pesticides evaluated HTCC