Predicting pesticide removal efficacy of vegetated filter strips: A meta-regression analysis

Vegetated Filter Strips (VFS's) are widely used for alleviating agricultural pesticide loadings to surface water bodies. However, effective tools are lacking to quantify the performance of VFS's in reducing off-site pesticide transport. In this study, we applied meta-regression to develop a model for predicting VFS pesticide retention efficiency based on hydrologic responses of VFS's, incoming pollutant characteristics and the interaction within and between these two factor groups (R(2)=0.83). In cross-validation analysis, our model (Q(2)=0.81) outperformed the existing pesticide retention module of VFSMOD (Q(2)=0.72) by explicitly accounting for interaction effect and the categorical effect of pesticide adsorption properties. Based on the 181 data points studied, infiltration had a leading, positive influence on pesticide retention, followed by sedimentation and interaction between the two. Interaction between infiltration and pesticide adsorption properties was also prominent, as the influence of infiltration was significantly lower for strongly adsorbed pesticides. In addition, the clay content of incoming sediment was negatively associated with pesticide retention. Our model is not only valuable in predicting VFS performance, but also provides a quantitative characterization of the interacting VFS processes, thereby facilitating a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms.