Agron. Sustain. Dev. 26 (2006) 99-106
DOI: 10.1051/agro:2006002

High sorption of phenanthrene in agricultural soils

Samira Amellal, Arnaud Boivin, Corinne Perrin Ganier and Michel Schiavon

Laboratoire Sols et Environnement, ENSAIA-INRA/INPL, 2 avenue de la Forêt de Haye, BP 172, 54505 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy Cedex, France

(Accepted 16 January 2006; published online 4 April 2006)

Abstract - We studied the sorption and desorption of ¹⁴C-labelled phenanthrene, a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, on soils, both in the laboratory using batch experiments and during 6 months of natural conditions using lysimeters. The laboratory results show that phenanthrene is strongly adsorbed, yielding empirical constants of sorption isotherms K_f of 163 for the clay soil and of 77 for the sandy loam soil. This result is unexpected because phenanthrene has a relatively high water solubility of 1.1 mg/L. Phenanthrene is also poorly desorbed, as shown by leaching of only 30% of initially sorbed phenanthrene. The natural condition results show that 27% of the initial phenanthrene occurs as non-available, bound residues after 6 months. The leaching of ¹⁴C phenanthrene derivatives amounts to less than 2% of the applied phenanthrene. The ¹⁴C phenanthrene derivatives leached included 80% of polar products. Analysis of the extractable residues from soils by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) showed the occurrence of 9,10-phenanthrenedione, a toxic degradation product, in notable quantities of 2-3% of extractable compounds.

Key words: PAH / adsorption / desorption / leaching / agricultural soil / water quality

Corresponding author: Samira Amellal Samira.Amellal@ensaia.inpl-nancy.fr

© INRA, EDP Sciences 2006