• The Korean Journal of Pesticide Science
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.299-308
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• 2004

In order to elucidate the behavior of bensulfuron-methyl, a sulfonylurea herbicide, in a soil/plant microecosystem, rice plants (Oryza sativa L.) were grown for 12 weeks in the specially made stainless steel pots (17cm I.D. $\times$ 10cm H.) containing two different paddy soils treated with fresh and 13-week-aged residues of [phenyl-$^{14}C$]bensulfuron-methyl, respectively. During the aging period, the mineralization to $^{14}CO_2$ from soil A (OM, 3.59%; CEC, 7.65 $cmol^+\;kg^{-1}$; texture, sandy clay loam) and B (OM, 1.62%; CEC, 4.51 $cmol^+\;kg^{-1}$; texture, sandy loam) amounted to 6.79 and 10.15% of the originally applied $[^{14}C]$bensulfuron-methyl, respectively. The amounts of $^{14}CO_2$ evolved from the soils with fresh residues were higher than those from the soils with aged residues. At harvest after 12-week growing, $^{14}C$-radioactivity absorbed and translocated into rice plants from soils A and B containing fresh residues of bensulfuron-methyl was 1.53 and 4.40%, while 4.04 and 6.37% in the two soils containing aged residues, respectively. Irrespective of aging and soil type, the $^{14}C$-radioactivity remaining in soil ranged from 80.41 to 98.87% of the originally applied $[^{14}C]$bensulfuron-methyl. The solvent extractability of tile soils was $39.25\sim70.39%$, showing the big differences among the treatments. Most of the nonextractable soil-bound residues of $[^{14}C]$bensulfuron-methyl were incorporated into the fulvic acid fraction$(61.32\sim76.45%)$. Comparing the microbial activity of the soils with rice plants grown with that of the soils without them, the former was $1.6\sim3.0$ times higher than the latter. However, it did not correlate with the $^{14}CO_2$ evolution.