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The ability of soil to adsorb metolachlor strongly influences its environmental fate, but little information is available on the correlation of its soil adsorption with degradation and bioavailability. The present study was conducted to characterize adsorption, degradation and bioavailability of metolachlor in five soils with different properties, and to investigate the effect of soil adsorption on degradation and bioavailability. Metolachlor was weakly adsorbed to the tested soils with adsorption coefficients ranging from 0.36 to1.18 μg1-n mLn g-1, suggesting its potential to move downward with percolating water. Adsorption followed a Freundlich isotherm and was positively correlated with soil organic matter (OM) content (p < 0.01). Degradation of metolachlor in soils obeyed the first-order kinetics, yielding the half-life varying from 37.9 to 49.5 days, which was significantly influenced by soil OM content (p < 0.01). The prolonged half-life by sterilization indicated that biodegradation was the dominant pathway for metolachlor degradation in soils. Uptake and bioaccumulation of metolachlor in soils by Eisenia foetida was also mainly controlled by soil properties, especially OM. Adsorption coefficients were negatively related to half-lives (p < 0.01) and bioaccumulation factors (p < 0.05), indicating that adsorption coefficients might be useful for predicting degradation and bioavailability of metolachlor in soils.

An incubation test was conducted to investigate the effect of aging on bioavailability of chlorpyrifos in soil and to assess the feasibility of chemical extraction techniques for predicting bioavailability of chlorpyrifos in soil. Chlorpyrifos was spiked into sterilized soil and aged in microcosms for up to 120 days. The earthworms were incubated in the spiked soils, at 0, 7, 14, 30, 60, and 120 days after spiking, for a period of 7 days. After exposure, chlorpyrifos concentrations in the earthworm tissues were determined. Change in chemical extractability of soil-chlorpyrifos was measured using a several solvent systems including methanol, methanol-water (9:1), acetone-water (5:3), and water. The results show that chemical extractability and earthworm bioavailability of chlorpyrifos in soil decreased with aging. The amount of aged and unaged chlorpyrifos recovered from soil varied with the individual chemical extractant and extraction method. Concentrations of chlorpyrifos in Eisenia foetida were significantly higher than in Allolobophora caliginosa, suggesting that the bioavailability of chlorpyrifos was a species-dependent process. The extractability of chlorpyrifos by chemical solvents was significantly correlated with bioavailability fraction of E. foetida and A. caliginosa, showing that these extraction techniques may be efficient for predicting bioavailability of chlorpyrifos in soil.