Managing agricultural emissions to the atmosphere: state of the science, fate and mitigation, and identifying research gaps

The impact of agriculture on regional air quality creates significant challenges to sustainability of food supplies and to the quality of national resources. Agricultural emissions to the atmosphere can lead to many nuisances, such as smog, haze, or offensive odors. They can also create more serious effects on human or environmental health, such as those posed by pesticides and other toxic industrial pollutants. It is recognized that deterioration of the atmosphere is undesirable, but the short- and long-term impacts of specific agricultural activities on air quality are not well known or understood. These concerns led to the organization of the 2009 American Chemical Society Symposium titled . An outcome of this symposium is this special collection of 14 research papers focusing on various issues associated with production agriculture and its effect on air quality. Topics included emissions from animal feeding operations, odors, volatile organic compounds, pesticides, mitigation, modeling, and risk assessment. These papers provide new research insights, identify gaps in current knowledge, and recommend important future research directions. As the scientific community gains a better understanding of the relationships between anthropogenic activities and their effects on environmental systems, technological advances should enable a reduction in adverse consequences on the environment.     

Effects of environmental factors on 1,3-dichloropropene hydrolysis in water and soil

Hydrolysis is the major pathway for fumigant 1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-D) degradation in water and soil, yet the process is not well understood. Experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of various environmental factors on the rate of 1,3-D hydrolysis. Cis-, trans-1,3-D and their isomeric mixture were spiked into water and Arlington soil (coarse-loamy, mixed, thermic Haplic Durixeralfs) and incubated under different conditions. The rate of 1,3-D hydrolysis in water and soil were evaluated based on its residual amount and Cl- release, respectively. 1,3-D hydrolyzed rapidly in deionized water, with a half-life of 9.8 d at 20 degrees C. The hydrolysis was pH dependent, with low pH inhibiting and high pH favoring the reaction. Other factors such as isomeric differences, photo irradiation, suspended particles, and small amounts of co-solutes had little effect on the reaction. In soil, 1,3-D hydrolyzed following pseudo first-order kinetics. The hydrolysis rate constant increased with soil moisture content and decreased with the initial 1,3-D concentration. At 20 degrees C, > 60% of the 1,3-D applied at < 0.61 g kg(-1) in 10% moisturized soil hydrolyzed within 30 d. The soil particle size and mineralogy had little effect on the reaction rate. Organic matter promoted 1,3-D degradation via direct substitution reactions, and the trans-isomer showed preference over the cis- to react with certain organic molecules. Microbial contributions were initially insignificant, and became important as soil microorganisms adapted to the fumigant. The results suggest that to accelerate 1,3-D degradation, pH, soil moisture, and organic amendment should be considered.