Agronomy Journal Journal of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Education
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Published online 1 July 1980
Published in Agron J 72:627-631 (1980)
© 1980 American Society of Agronomy
677 S. Segoe Rd., Madison, WI 53711 USA
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Toxaphene Volatilization from a Mature Cotton Canopy1

G. H. Willis2, L. L. McDowell3, S. Smith2, L. M. Southwick2 and E. R. Lemon4

To fully understand the pollution potential of pesticides more knowledge concerning the mechanisms and rates of pesticide exchange between environmental compartments is needed. The momentum balance method was used in a field study to characterize toxaphene (chlorinated camphene) volatilization from cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) plants for 5 days following aerial application at 2.24 kg/ha. The momentum balance method uses accurate measurements of windspeed profiles, temperature gradients, and atmospheric pesticide concentration gradients above the plant canopy to provide data for calculating vertical flux densities of pesticides. The calculated volatile loss for the 5-day period was 358 g/ha, which represented a loss of 26% of the toxaphene present in the canopy. Although typical volatile loss patterns suggested that flux densities were highest during midafternoon, there was evidence that volatility rates were also high when leaves were drying after heavy dew or light rain. Based on comparisons of the amounts of toxaphene transported from nearby cotton fields via surface runoff in earlier studies and the amounts lost by volatilization in this study, it was concluded that aerial transport is the pathway of greater loss.

Key Words: Aerodynamic profile method • Momentum balance method • Aerial pesticide application • Gossypium hirsutum L. • Flux density • Pesticide • Insecticide • Chlorinated camphene

1 Joint contribution from Soil and Water Pollution Research Unit, USDA-SEA-AR, P. O. Drawer U, Baton Rouge, LA 70893 cooperating with the Louisiana Agric. Exp. Stn.; USDA Sedimentation Laboratory, Oxford, MS 38655; and the Microclimate Project, USDA-SEA-AR, cooperating with Dep. of Agronomy, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY 14853.

2 Soil scientist and chemists, USDA, Baton Rouge, La.

3 Soil scientist, USDA, Oxford, Miss.

4 Soil scientist, USDA, and professor of soil science, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, N.Y.

Received for publication May 13, 1979.




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The SCI Journals Crop Science Vadose Zone Journal
Journal of Natural Resources
and Life Sciences Education		 Soil Science Society of America Journal
Journal of Plant Registrations Journal of
Environmental Quality		 The Plant Genome
Copyright © 1980 by the American Society of Agronomy.