An improved PADDY model including uptake by rice roots to predict pesticide behavior in paddy fields under nursery-box and submerged applications

We developed an improved version of the PADDY model for predicting pesticide behavior in paddy fields, which includes pesticide uptake by rice roots. We applied the model to nursery-box and submerged pesticide applications. A paddy field was divided into root-zone and inter-plant areas, and paddy soil containing pesticides was vertically separated into three layers. Pesticide behavior was modeled with mass fractions of the pesticides in paddy water and the soil layers immediately after rice transplanting obtained from field experiments, and uptake by rice roots was described using the transpiration stream concentration factor. The improved model successfully simulated measured concentration changes in a paddy field, including rice plants, under nursery-box and submerged applications. The model evaluated the difference in the concentrations of nursery-box-applied pesticides between root-zone and inter-plant soil samples with several key parameters. Our study provides a useful solution for simulating the uptake of pesticides in soil by rice roots.