Sorption of a Xenobiotic Contaminant in Clean and Petroleum-Contaminated Soil: Roles of Water and Xenobiotic Size

Environmental Context. Soil uptake of xenobiotics (e.g. pesticides) can be a complex phenomenon where it is useful to distinguish readily reversible sorption from longer-term retention. A scheme for doing this using fluorescence detection is presented here, along with application to uptake of a model compound in clean and oil-contaminated soils. Both the wetting of the soil and the size of the xenobiotic seem to be important. The present data concern uptake. Desorption is expected to exhibit dependencies on similar factors. The data have implications for understanding persistence.

Abstract. Description of sorption of xenobiotics (e.g. pesticides) into soils requires identification of at least two kinetic components. In the present work, the distinction between ‘labile’ (readily reversible) and ‘non-labile’ (not reversible) uptake was extended, introducing a fluorescence-based method using 9-anthracenepropionic acid as a probe molecule. Study of clean, oil-contaminated wettable, and water-repellent oil-contaminated soils has given new perspectives into the role that water plays in xenobiotic uptake. Non-labile uptake is unimportant in the water-repellent soils; however, non-labile components are observed in both clean and wettable oil-contaminated samples, supporting earlier suggestions that water plays a role in non-labile uptake processes. A soil pre-exposed to water exhibited different labile sorption behavior from one where xenobiotic was added simultaneously with water to an air-dried soil. The comparatively rapid non-labile component of uptake (3 days) of 9-anthracenepropanoic acid by a clean soil contrasted with much longer times in earlier studies of 2,4-D and atrazine. This pointed to another factor influencing the sorption phenomenon. Literature data supports a suggestion that the non-labile component of xenobiotic sorption may be more strongly influenced by the size of the xenobiotic than by the structure (e.g. polarity) of the xenobiotic or soil composition.