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Glyphosate spraying exacerbates nitrogen and phosphorus loss in karst slope farmland

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Abstract

Glyphosate herbicide is an indispensable material in agricultural production. In order to explore the potential environmental effects of glyphosate application in karst slope farmland, this paper used a variable slope steel tank to simulate the surface microtopography and underground pore structure characteristics of karst slope farmland, and combined with artificial rainfall experiments to explore the migration path of glyphosate in karst slope farmland and the impact of spraying glyphosate on soil nitrogen and phosphorus loss. The results showed that under the condition of heavy rain, glyphosate in karst slope farmland was mainly transported and diffused by surface runoff, supplemented by underground runoff; secondly, in different hydrological paths, glyphosate directly affected the content of nitrogen and phosphorus in runoff, and all showed extremely significant positive correlation (p < 0.001). In addition, rainfall conditions such as rainfall intensity, rainfall duration, and runoff affected the content of nitrogen and phosphorus in runoff to varying degrees. In conclusion, the application of glyphosate significantly increased the content of nitrogen and phosphorus in different runoff and accelerated the loss of nitrogen and phosphorus from soil, which not only led to soil degradation, but also threatened the safety of aquatic ecosystem. Therefore, in the prevention and control of agricultural non-point source pollution, the threat of glyphosate to the surrounding aquatic ecosystem cannot be ignored, especially in karst areas with frequent rainstorms and serious water erosion, long-term monitoring and risk assessment of glyphosate are needed.

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The data supporting the findings of this study are not openly available but are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request by email.

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Acknowledgements

Our acknowledgements are extended to the anonymous reviewers for their constructive review of this manuscript.

Funding

This research was supported jointly by the Regional Fund of National Natural Science Foundation of China (42167044), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42007067), the Science and Technology Plan Project of Guizhou Province ([2020]1Y176), and the Guizhou Provincial Water Conservancy Science and Technology Projects (KT202205).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Forestry, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, People’s Republic of China

    You Zhang, Youjin Yan, Quanhou Dai, Juan Tan, Chenyang wang, Hong Zhou & Zeyin Hu

  2. Tongren Polytechnic College, Tongren, 554300, People’s Republic of China

    You Zhang

  3. Institute of Soil Erosion and Ecological Restoration, Guizhou University, Guiyang, 550025, People’s Republic of China

    You Zhang, Youjin Yan, Quanhou Dai, Juan Tan, Chenyang wang, Hong Zhou & Zeyin Hu

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  1. You Zhang
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  2. Youjin Yan
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  3. Quanhou Dai
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Contributions

You Zhang: methodology, investigation, resources, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing. Youjin Yan: investigation, methodology, writing—review and editing. Quanhou Dai: conceptualization, resources, methodology, investigation, validation, writing—review editing, supervision, project administration, and funding acquisition. Juan Tan: resources, investigation, writing—review and editing, and funding acquisition. Chenyang Wang: methodology, investigation, validation, writing—review editing. Hong Zhou: conceptualization, methodology, supervision, writing—review editing. Zeyin Hu: methodology, visualization, writing—review editing.

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Correspondence to Quanhou Dai.

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Zhang, Y., Yan, Y., Dai, Q. et al. Glyphosate spraying exacerbates nitrogen and phosphorus loss in karst slope farmland. Environ Monit Assess 196, 80 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-12238-x

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