A comparative assessment of the transformation products of S-metolachlor and its commercial product Mercantor Gold® and their fate in the aquatic environment by employing a combination of experimental and in silico methods

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

Even appropriately used, pesticides can enter the surface and groundwater by several routes where photochemical degradation along with biotic processes contributes to their fate, resulting sometimes in the formation of stable transformation products (TPs). Yet, little is known about S-metolachlor (SM) transformation in the aquatic environment. Furthermore, commercial formulation of a pesticide might have different physical and biological properties compared to its pure grade. The present study assessed the biodegradability of the pure SM and its commercial product Mercantor Gold(®) (MG) by employing two OECD biodegradation (301D, F) tests. Photolysis in water was investigated by using a Xe lamp. Subsequently the biodegradability of the photolysis mixtures was examined. The primary elimination of SM was monitored and structures of its TPs were elucidated by HPLC-UV-MS/MS. Additionally, a set of in silico prediction programs was applied for supporting analytical results and toxicity assessment of SM and TPs. S-metolachlor and Mercantor Gold(®) were not biodegraded. HPLC-UV analysis showed higher elimination of SM in MG compared to pure SM during photolysis. A total of 10 photo-TPs of SM and MG were identified. According to MS data and in silico predictions, chemical structures were proposed for all found photo-TPs. Likewise for the parent compounds, no biodegradation has been observed for their photo-TPs. However, in the 301F test new bio-TPs have been generated from photo-TPs which were observed for the first time according to authors' best knowledge. The results suggest that the MG formulation does not affect the biodegradation process, but it influences the photolysis efficiency and potentially might result in faster formation of TPs in the environment. This study also demonstrates that photo-TPs can be further transformed into new products due to bacterial activity in the water phase. Moreover biotransformation might lead to an increased toxicity compared with the parent compound.

Original languageEnglish
JournalThe Science of The Total Environment
Volume506-507
Pages (from-to)369-379
Number of pages11
ISSN0048-9697
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15.02.2015

    Research areas

  • Chemistry - Acetamides, Biodegradation, Environmental, Computer Simulation, Herbicides, Models, Chemical, Photolysis, Water Pollutants, Chemical

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Pragmatic and discourse-analytic approaches to present-day English
  2. Path dependence of accountants: Why are they not involved in corporate sustainability?
  3. Pragmatic Function of Twitter Handlers' Perspectives on Children Discourse in Nigeria.
  4. Conceptual and procedural mathematical knowledge of beginning mathematics majors and preservice teachers
  5. The end of certainties
  6. A PD Fuzzy Control of a Nonholonomic Car-Like Robot for Drive Assistant Systems
  7. Thermal Conductivity Measurement of Salt Hydrates as Porous Material using Calorimetric (DSC) Method
  8. An empirical note on commuting distance and sleep during workweek and weekend
  9. Minimization of answer distortion in personality questionnaires
  10. In the Aftermath of Violence. On Being Present and Calling Into Presence
  11. Case Study Analysis
  12. Slowing resource loops in the Circular Economy: an experimentation approach in fashion retail
  13. Work values as predictors of entrepreneurial career intentions:
  14. Strategies in Sustainable Supply Chain Management
  15. A colonial lack of imagination
  16. The Integration of Wheelchair Users in Team Handball
  17. Carbon footprinting of large product portfolios. Extending the use of Enterprise Resource Planning systems to carbon information management
  18. Repeat Receipts
  19. Quantitative determination on hot tearing in Mg-Al binary alloys
  20. Introduction
  21. Vom Wildwuchs zur Norm
  22. Multiple streams, resistance and energy policy change in Paraguay (2004–2014)
  23. Networks of Clusters
  24. Linking stakeholder survey, scenario analysis, and simulation modeling to explore the long-term impacts of regional water governance regimes
  25. 'Put bluntly, you have something of a credibility problem'
  26. Verbraucherrechtsdurchsetzung
  27. The knowledge transfer potential of online data pools on nature-based solutions
  28. Democratization
  29. Plastics in our ocean as transdisciplinary challenge
  30. Characterization of selected microalgae and cyanobacteria as sources of compounds with antioxidant capacity
  31. Materialitäten der Kindheit
  32. Non-sterile fermentation of food waste with indigenous consortium and yeast – Effects on microbial community and product spectrum
  33. Neorealism
  34. Portraying myth more convincingly
  35. Sustainable Development as a Challenge for Undergraduate Students: The Module "Science Bears Responsibility" in the Leuphana Bachelor's Programme
  36. Is there a compensating wage differential for high crime levels?
  37. The European Commission’s Expert Groups
  38. The effectiveness of interventions during and after residence in women’s shelters
  39. Innovative approaches in mathematical modeling
  40. Students' Time Allocation and School Performance
  41. Grundsatzfragen und Paradoxien für die Netzwerkarbeit in BBS futur 2.0