Arsenic mobilization from soils in the presence of herbicides

Arsenic (As) mobilization in soils is a fundamental step controlling its transport and fate, especially in the presence of the co-existing components. In this study, the effect of two commonly used herbicides, glyphosate (PMG) and dicamba, and two competing ions including phosphate and humic acid, on As desorption and release was investigated using batch and column experiments. The batch kinetics results showed that As desorption in the presence of competing factors conformed to the pseudo-second order kinetics at pH range of 5-9. The impact of phosphate on desorption was greatest, followed by PMG. The competitive effect of dicamba and humic acid was at the same level with electrolyte solution. In situ flow cell ATR-FTIR analysis was performed to explore the mechanism of phosphate and PMG impact on As mobilization. The results showed that PMG promoted As(III) desorption by competiting for available adsorption sites with no change in As(III) complexing structure. On the other hand, phophate changed As(III) surface complexes from bidentate to monodentate structures, exhibiting the most siginficant effect on As(III) desorption. As(V) surface complexes remained unchanged in the presence of PMG and phosphate, implying that the competitive effect for As(V) desorption was primarily determined by the available adsorption sites. Long-term (10 days) soil column experiments suggested that the effect of humic acid on As mobilization became pronounced from 3 days (18 PVs). The insights of this study help us understand the transport and fate of As due to herbicides application.