Simulating sulfosulfuron fate in soil under different weather scenarios to support weed management decisions

Amit Paporisch*, Yael Laor, Baruch Rubin, Hanan Eizenberg

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Residual herbicides are an important component in many weed control strategies. Their herbicidal activity depends on their fate in soil, with respect to the required concentration for weed control in space and time. In this study, the effect of weather conditions on sulfosulfuron fate in soil, following pre-planting incorporation, and the predicted control efficacy of Egyptian broomrape in tomato, were analyzed for two sites using simulations in Hydrus-1D modeling software. Simulated concentration was compared to measured data from field experiments. RESULTS: Model evaluation against measured data from two fields, with weakly alkaline clay soils, showed high correlations between simulated and measured sulfosulfuron concentrations (r = 0.98 and 0.89). The ratio of measured to simulated concentration was relatively low (1.03) at the top 10-cm layer, in which the mean measured concentration was high (29.6 ng g−1). This ratio was higher (12.5) at the 30–60 cm depth, in which the mean measured concentration was lower (0.3 ng g−1). Simulations of sulfosulfuron fate in each site, using weather data from the years 2009 to 2019, revealed substantial variations in transport patterns. Thirty days after treatment, 16 out of the 22 years simulated for the two sites (11 at each site) resulted in concentrations lower than the critical value for Egyptian broomrape control throughout the soil profile. The data indicates that variation in sulfosulfuron fate is mainly due to differences in the cumulative precipitation. According to simulation results, cumulative precipitation above 20 or 10 mm during the first 10 or 20 days after treatment, respectively, is expected to reduce the efficiency of broomrape control. CONCLUSION: Considering weather effects when planning herbicide application could optimize herbicide use efficiency. A decision-support tool is presented, whose factors are the time gap and precipitation amount between sulfosulfuron application and tomato planting.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)253-263
Number of pages11
JournalPest Management Science
Volume77
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Society of Chemical Industry

Keywords

  • Egyptian broomrape
  • Hydrus-1D
  • pesticide transport model
  • Phelipanche aegyptiaca (Pers.) Pomel
  • residual herbicides

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