Use of the Dynamic Technique DGT to Determine the Labile Pool Size and Kinetic Resupply of Pesticides in Soils and Sediments

The diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) technique has been successfully and widely applied to investigate the labile fractions of inorganic contaminants in soils and sediments, but there have been almost no applications to organic contaminants. Here we developed and tested the approach for the pesticide Atrazine (ATR) in a controlled soil experiment and in situ in an intact lake sediment core. The soil study explored the relationships between soil solution, DGT measured labile ATR and solvent extractable ATR in dosed soils of different organic matter, pH status and incubation times. The results are further interpreted using the DIFS (DGT-induced fluxes in soils and sediments) model. Resupply of ATR to the soil solution was partially sustained by the solid phase in all the soils. This was due to small labile pool size and slow kinetics, with soil pH being an important controlling factor. The in situ sediment study successfully used a DGT probe to examine labile ATR distribution through the core on the subcm scale. It demonstrated–for the first time–an easy to use in situ technique to investigate the effects of redox on resupply kinetics and biogeochemical processes of trace organic contaminants in sediments.