Nonformal environmental education: a case study with farmers in a town of the South Minas Gerais state,Brazil

Brazil is a central place in the international agricultural markets and this fact has been demanding environmentally oriented agricultural practices by Brazilian farmers and professionals involved in the agricultural market chain. A concise and structured questionnaire was applied to obtain the environmental perception of a group of Brazilian farmers in a town of the south Minas Gerais state, using herbicides as the topic for a case study. A highly variable opinion about taking the environment into account when choosing the most appropriate herbicide was found. Anyway, efficacy has been indicated as the most important factor when choosing an herbicide, followed by the environment and price. The outcomes from the questionnaires, i.e. the insufficient conception and importance given to environment when choosing the herbicide, motivated the creation of a teaching-learning model for the nonformal environmental education using the concept of socio-ecological resilience. This routine puts in practice the resilience thinking currently invoked as a major tool to achieve the conservation of the socio-ecological system, as well as it is complimentary to the outcome-oriented optimization for conservation theory. For the case study about farmers and the use of herbicides, we conclude that a complex reasoning and, ultimately, pro-environmental actions can be improved after experiencing the recommended model for environmental education.     

磺酰脲类除草剂在环境中的光降解研究——水溶液中的光解动力学

以汞灯为光源,研究了甲黄隆,苯黄隆,氯黄隆,氯嘧黄隆,苄嘧黄和胺苯黄隆６种磺酰脲类除草剂在水液中的光解动力淡。结果表明,５种磺酰的降解呈一级动力学反应;体系的ＰＨ值对降解速率影响不明显,光强的影响较明显著;Ｈ２Ｏ２丙酮和溶解有机质均可促进磺酰光解;党妥氧对该类除草剂光解的影响表现为光氧化与淬灭２种作用的竞争。     

取代脲类除草剂光催化降解动力学比较

为研究取代脲类除草剂在TiO₂光催化降解过程中的动力学规律,以非草隆、异丙隆和利谷隆3种取代脲类除草剂为研究对象,通过Langmuir-Hinshelwood动力学模型对其TiO₂光催化降解动力学进行模拟,并系统探讨了催化剂用量、C₀(取代脲类除草剂的初始浓度)、溶液pH、温度、ROSs(活性氧物种)和电子捕获剂等的影响. 结果表明:非草隆、异丙隆和利谷隆的TiO₂光催化降解均符合假一级动力学模型,其动力学常数分别为0.082 8、0.068 7和0.095 4 min-1;取代脲类除草剂分子中的芳香环和脲桥上的取代基对降解速率常数的大小有明显的影响. ROSs试验表明,非草隆、异丙隆和利谷隆光催化降解过程中分别有91.6%、95.5%和86.8%的贡献来自·OH;而光生空穴和其他ROSs的贡献相对较小,并且电子捕获剂BrO₃-和S₂O₈2-对取代脲类除草剂的降解动力学有显著的促进作用.      

Absorption and translocation of sulfometuron-methyl in sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) at different growth stages

ABSTRACT

In Brazil, weed management in sugarcane fields is mainly done with the use of selective herbicide formulations. For many years, diuron+hexazinone was one of the main herbicide mixture formulations used in sugarcane. Later, sulfometuron-methyl was included in the same mixture, which was marketed as a new herbicide formulation for residual in-season weed control in sugarcane. The mixture diuron+hexazinone+sulfometuron-methyl has been widely used in commercial sugarcane fields in Brazil. However, recent field observations have shown that sugarcane plants at different growth stages varied in their phytotoxicity levels after treatment with diuron+hexazinone+sulfometuron-methyl. Greenhouse and laboratory studies were conducted to determine ¹⁴Csulfometuron-methyl absorption and translocation, as well as ¹⁴C distribution in sugarcane at two growth stages, 2 to 3 leaves and 5 to 6 leaves. ¹⁴Csulfometuron-methyl absorption by sugarcane did not differ between the two growth stages. Different patterns of ¹⁴C accumulation were observed, which may explain variations in sulfometuron-methyl phytotoxic responses observed in the field.     

Triazine and Metolachlor Herbicide Residues in Farm Areas of the Lower Fraser Valley,British Columbia,Canada

Crop soils, ditch sediments and water flowing from several Lower Fraser River (LFR) farm areas of British Columbia, Canada, to salmon tributary streams of that river were sampled in 2004–2005 to quantify for residues of triazine [atrazine, desethylatrazine (a transformation product of atrazine), propazine, and simazine] and metolachlor (a chloroacetamide) herbicides. Average concentrations [μg kg^?1 dry weight (d.w.)] of triazine (10,110) and metolachlor (8,910) herbicides detected in crop soils at the start (May 2004, 2005) of the growing season were about 17 and 6 times, respectively, higher than those found for both herbicide groups during (June–Sept, 2004, 2005) the growing season. In contrast, mean concentrations (μg L^?1) of triazines (0.092) and metolachlor (0.014) in permanent ditches adjacent to farms were about 7 and 28 times, respectively, lower at the start than during the growing season. Both herbicide groups in ditch sediments were detected only during the growing season at concentrations averaging about 315 μg kg^?1 d.w. The risk potential of these herbicides for non-target aquatic organisms inhabiting permanent farm ditches contiguous to tributary streams of the LFR during the growing season is evaluated and discussed.     

Responses of different fungal and plant species to acetolactate synthase inhibitors and their derivatives

Abstract

The effect of sulfonylurea (SU) acetolactate synthases (ALS) inhibitors (chlorsulfuron and triasulfuron) and their 13 guanidine and 7 azole derivatives was studied on 17 fungal and 21 plant species. The efficacy of chlorsulfuron and triasulfuron against Fusarium oxysporum and Thielaviopsis basicola was higher than carbendazim. Two azole derivatives were highly selective for maize. The antifungal activity spectrum of both guanidine and azole derivatives differed from that of chlorsulfuron and triasulfuron, and did not exert notable antifungal activity in vitro. However, they had significant anti‐Fusarium efficacy on rye that surpassed that of carbendazim.     

Simultaneous voltammetric determination of four triazine herbicides in water samples with the aid of chemometrics

A novel differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) method was developed for the simultaneous analysis of herbicides in water. A mixture of four herbicides, atrazine, simazine, propazine and terbuthylazine was analyzed simultaneously and the complex, overlapping DPV voltammograms were resolved by several chemometrics methods such as partial least squares (PLS), principal component regression (PCR) and principal component–artificial networks (PC–ANN). The complex profiles of the voltammograms collected from a synthetic set of samples were best resolved with the use of the PC–ANN method, and the best predictions of the concentrations of the analytes were obtained with the PC-ANN model (%RPE_T = 6.1 and average %Recovery = 99.0). The new method was also used for analysis of real samples, and the obtained results were compared well with those from the GC-MS technique. Such conclusions suggest that the novel method is a viable alternative to the other commonly used methods such as GC, HPLC and GC-MS.     

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Abstract

The leaching behaviour of the herbicide acetochlor [2‐chloro‐N‐(2‐ethyl‐6‐methylphenyl)‐N‐(ethoxymethyl)acetamide] was determined as compared with two congener compounds, alachlor [2‐chloro‐N‐(2,6‐diethylphenyl)‐N‐(methoxymethyl)acetamide] and metolachlor [2‐chloro‐N‐(2‐ethyl‐6‐methylphenyl)‐N‐(2‐methoxy‐l‐methylethyl)acetamide]. The leaching profiles of the herbicides in columns with different types of soil and their capacity factors in reverse phase HPLC were compared. An approach for preliminary characteristic of the potential for water pollution of acetochlor is presented. The herbicide is classified as a leacher in soil and its potential for contamination of ground water is comparable with those of alachlor and metolachlor.     

Air concentrations of currently used herbicides and legacy compounds in the Canadian prairies,subarctic, and arctic

Passive air samplers were installed in the summers of 2005 and 2007 for 90 days at four locations in the agricultural region of the Canadian Prairies and at five locations in the Canadian Subarctic and Arctic. The presence and masses of ten currently used herbicides and three legacy compounds in the polyurethane foam disks were quantified. Herbicides 2,4-D, bromoxynil and MCPA were detected at all locations in the Canadian Prairies and in both years because these herbicides are widely applied to control broadleaf weeds in cereal crops that are an integral part of Prairie agricultural production systems. MCPA was also detected at one location in the Arctic in 2007. The detection of the other seven herbicides in the 2 years combined ranged from no detections (atrazine only) to five detections for the relatively volatile herbicides trifluralin and triallate. Triallate was the only other herbicide detected in the Arctic (2005). Legacy compounds were either not detected (alachlor) or at levels near their detection level (γ-HCH and α-HCH). γ-HCH and α-HCH were more frequently detected in 2005 than in 2007 indicating that their concentrations in Canadian air have decreased over time. γ-HCH, widely used as an insecticide in Prairie oilseed production until 2002, was detected at larger concentrations in the Canadian Prairies than in the Subarctic and Arctic. α-HCH, a manufacturing by-product in technical HCH prior to 1971 in Canada, was not detected in the Canadian Prairies but was at detectable levels in the Subarctic and Arctic as the Arctic Ocean is reported to be a major source of α-HCH to the atmosphere. We conclude that some of the most widely used herbicides in Canadian agriculture today are commonly present in the air in regions where they are applied and that a portion of these herbicides may be traveling as parent molecules to the Canadian Arctic. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first evidence of the presence of MCPA and triallate in Arctic air samples, perhaps because previous research has seldomly monitored for currently used herbicides in this region.     

Ability of Poplar (Populus spp.) to Detoxify Chloroacetanilide Herbicides

The ability of poplar trees to resist chemical stress caused by chloroacetanilide herbicides was studied. Detached leaves of Lombardy poplar (Populus nigra L.) were exposed to seven chloroacetanilide herbicides via uptake through the cut petiole. The leaves showed high tolerance against the phytotoxicity of these compounds. Their tolerance was further enhanced by treatment with 2-oxothiazolidine-4-carboxylic acid (OTC, a precursor of the amino acid cysteine). High levels of glutathione (GSH) and GSH S-transferase (GST) activity were detected in poplar leaves. Treatments with chloroacetanilide herbicides left the GSH content in the leaves unchanged but strongly induced the GST activity. In contrast, in OTC-treated leaves increased GSH contents were measured, but GST activities remained unchanged. It therefore appears that a highly active and inducible GSH-conjugation Phase II detoxification system in their leaves may make poplar trees useful for phytoremediation of soils contaminated with chloroacetanilide herbicides. Based on these findings a phytoremediation project using different poplar hybrids at a site heavily polluted with such compounds in Hungary has been launched.