Trial of solar heating methods (solarization and biosolarization) to reduce persistence of neonicotinoid and diamide insecticides in a semiarid Mediterranean soil

• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.03.013
• Publication Date: 2017-03-07T16:47:53Z
• Authors: Nuria Vela; José Fenoll; Ginés Navarro; Isabel Garrido; Simón Navarro
• Keywords: 2. Zero hunger; 15. Life on land; 7. Clean energy; 01 natural sciences; 6. Clean water; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

This paper reports the use of solar heating techniques, solarization (S) and biosolarization (BS) as a strategy for the environmental restoration of soils containing neonicotinoid, acetamiprid (AC), imidacloprid (IM) and thiamethoxam (TH), and diamide, chlorantraniliprole (CL) and flubendiamide (FB) insecticide residues. For this, a semiarid Mediterranean soil (Haplic calcisol) was covered with low-density polyethylene (LDPE) during the hot season, to raise the maximal soil temperatures. Compost from sheep manure (CSM), meat-processing waste (MPW) and sugar beet vinasse (SBV) were used as organic wastes. The results showed that both S and BS increase insecticide disappearance rates compared with the non-disinfected soil, the increase in soil temperature and added organic matter playing a key role. The dissipation rates of TH and AC in soil were satisfactorily described by first-order (monophasic) kinetics, while IM, CL and FB showed a deviation from exponential behaviour. For them, the best results were obtained applying biphasic kinetics with a rapid initial degradation followed by a slower decline of their residues. The findings suggest that S and BS (especially using MPW) can be considered as a valuable tool for enhancing the detoxification of soils polluted with these insecticides.