Detoxification of Pesticide Residues in Soil Using Phytoremediation

During the past few years, we have conducted a series of experiments to investigate the potential of using plants as tools for the remediation of pesticide-contaminated soil. We have demonstrated that a blend of prairie grasses increases dissipation rates of several pesticides including metolachlor, trifluralin, and pendimethalin. However, in other studies, mulberry trees were not shown to influence pesticide dissipation. Additional studies have demonstrated that metolachlor movement in the soil column may be reduced by the presence of prairie grasses, bioavailability of dinitroanaline herbicides may be reduced during phytoremediation, and soil and leachate from remediated soil may have less toxicity than expected. Current studies within our laboratory are being conducted to determine the role of prairie grass blends in the phytoremediation procedure as compared to individual species and the role of plant uptake of pesticides in the phytoremediation process