The effects of soil and Trifolium repens (white clover) on the fate of estrogen

In this study, we investigated the behavior of estrogens in the rhizosphere of white clover (Trifolium repens, clover hereafter) with two different pot tests, using soil and agar as growth media. In a pot test using agar spiked with estrogen, the estrogen concentration in the agar with clover decreased to non-detectable levels within one month, while in the agar without clover, 60% of initially added estrogen remained after one month. The half-lives of estrone (E1) and 17β -estradiol (E2) in the agar with clover were 2.4–3.8 and 13.2 d, respectively. The dissipation of E1 followed first-order rate law, while that of E2 fitted a zero-order reaction, indicating that they had different mechanisms of dissipation from agar. In the soil pot test, the behavior of E1 and E2 was not influenced by clover. An initial rapid decrease in the amount of estrogen extracted by methanol/acetic acid was followed by persistence for 1–3 months, regardless of presence of clover. Moreover, in three weeks E1 and E2 were only partly degraded by microbes extracted from the soil used in the pot test. In this study, abiotic degradation of estrogens and sorption of estrogen to soil, rather than the effects of soil microbes and clover, contributed to the initial rapid dissipation of estrogens in the soil. However, the results of the agar pot test suggested that vegetation such as clover may significantly contribute to removal of estrogens when estrogens in aqueous phase are discharged with surface runoff and preferential flow after heavy rain in agricultural fields, or when present in soils with low estrogen sorptivity.