Glyphosate dispersion in soil

Figure 2 shows an animation of the mass fraction change over time for each chemical species and how these change in time and space over 20 years. In particular, the top panel shows the instantaneous normalized precipitation and evapotranspiration (in black) and the glyphosate applications (in red). From the left to the right, the lower panels show the water saturation and water table depth fluctuations, the GLP and AMPA mass fraction in the aqueous phase, and the GLP and products in the adosorbed and gaseous phases, respectively. Comprehensive analyses of GLP and AMPA dynamics can be found in PUBLICATIONS.

Glyphosate (GLP) has become the most used herbicide and is currently applied at a mass rate of about 700,000 tonnes every year. GLP can readily be degraded by adapt soil microorganisms or reside long periods of time in pristine environments but its byproduct AMPA is not easily degraded. Figure 1 shows the reaction network implemented in BRTSim for our analyses. We tested various scenarios of contamination including crops and cultivation practices, reactivity with minerals, and parametric uncertainty.

Figure 1

Figure 2