Adsorption and leaching of novel fungicide pyraoxystrobin on soils by ¹⁴C tracing method

Pyraoxystrobin, (E)-2-(2-((3-(4-chlorophenyl)-1-methyl-1H-pyrazole-5-yloxy)methyl)phenyl)-3-methoxyacrylate, is a newly developed strobilurin fungicide with high antifungal efficiency. It has high potential to enter soil environments that might subsequently impact surface and groundwater. Therefore, ¹⁴C-labeled pyraoxystrobin was used as a tracer to study the adsorption/desorption and migration behavior of this compound under laboratory conditions in three typical agricultural soils. The adsorption isotherms conformed with the Freundlich equation. Single factor analysis showed that organic matter content was the most important factor influencing the adsorption. The highest adsorption level was measured in soil with low pH and high organic carbon content. Once adsorbed, only 2.54 to 6.41% of the adsorbed compound could be desorbed. In addition, the mobility results from thin-layer chromatography and column leaching studies showed that it might be safe to use pyraoxystrobin as a fungicide without causing groundwater pollution from both runoff and leaching, which might be attributed to its strong hydrophobicity. High organic matter content enhanced pyraoxystrobin adsorption and desorption because of the rule of similarity (lipid solubility). In the column leaching study, 95.02% (minimum value) of the applied ¹⁴C remained within the upper 4.0-cm layer after 60 days.