PREDICTING HERBICIDE AND METABOLITE BEHAVIOUR IN SOILS UNDER SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURAL PRACTICES AT LONG-TERM (PREDHERSUS)
Reference: PID2023-151031OB-I00.
PIs: M. Sonia Rodríguez Cruz (PI1), Jesús M. Marín Benito (PI2).
Research team: M. Sonia Rodríguez Cruz, Jesús M. Marín Benito, M. Soledad Andrades Rodríguez.
Duration: 01/09/2024-31/08/2028 (4 años).
Total budget: 168.750,00 €
Participating entities: IRNASA-CSIC, Universidad de La Rioja.
Abstract:
Soil management practices as conservation agriculture makes food production sustainable on soils susceptible to degradation and erosion. Conservation agriculture practices, including crop rotation, no tillage, direct seeding, application of organic amendments, and mulching, increase soil OC content and improve soil structure, its stability, biological diversity between other benefits. All these changes in soil properties control the behaviour of herbicides in soils and the persistence of these compounds could be modified when are applied under these agricultural practices. In addition to the evaluation of the behaviour of herbicides in soil when conservation agriculture practices are implemented, it is necessary to go one step further and predict with simulation mathematical models their behaviour at long-term in order to use this information as inputs for decisions within the Green Deal context.
Therefore, the main objective of the project is to compare in a control cropping system based on an oat-maize crop rotation, no tillage, and direct seeding, the impact of implementing individually two additional conservation agricultural practices such as: i) the application of composted organic residues to soil, and ii) mulching (leaving both crop residues on the soil surface after harvest), on the environmental fate of herbicides and their metabolites from: 1) the evaluation of the persistence and distribution of the herbicides and metabolites in the soil profile, and 2) the modelling of their environmental fate by using the PEARL model, parameterized and validated with data measured under real field conditions (experimental plots).
This goal will allow establishing modelling guidelines for assessing and predicting the impact and feasibility of these agronomic practices on the quality of soil, surface and ground water, optimizing the use of herbicides from an agronomic and environmental point of view at long-term (10 years).
