Imidacloprid (IMD) is a neonicotinoid pesticide soil-drenched to many crops to control piercing-sucking insects such as the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP). Neonicotinoids are persistent in the environment and transport analyses are helpful estimate leaching potential from soils that could result in groundwater pollution. The objective of this study was to analyze IMD breakthrough under saturated wa...

Precision agriculture depends on the knowledge and management of soil quality (SQ), which calls for affordable, simple and rapid but accurate analysis of bioavailable soil nutrients. Conventional SQ analysis methods are tedious and expensive. We demonstrate the utility of a new chemometrics-assisted energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence and scattering (EDXRFS) spectroscopy method we have develop...

The purpose of this work was to investigate the effect of solute size on diffusive-dispersive transport in porous media. Miscible displacement experiments were performed with tracers of various sizes (i.e. tritiated water (3H20), pentafluorobenzoate (PFBA), and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D)) and a homogeneous, nonreactive sand for pore-water velocities varying by three orders of magnit...

This paper presents the ElastoDynamics Toolbox (EDT) for MATLAB.1 EDT provides an extensive set of MATLAB functions to model seismic wave propagation in layered soils. It is based on the direct stiffness method and the thin layer method, presented by Kausel and Roësset. The toolbox is developed at K.U.Leuven, where it is used both for educational purposes and in research projects. It is used to...

A simple, fast and inexpensive analytical method was developed and validated for screening of Fluroxypyr-Meptyl, a selective post-emergent systemic broadleaf herbicide in onion (plant leaf, bulb) and soil using GC-MS/MS. The method comprised of extraction with ethyl acetate using matrix solid phase dispersion method followed by column chromatographic and dispersive solid phase extraction cleanu...

Mineral forms in rhizosphere and bulk substrate were examined for selected plant species (Cardaminopsis arenosa, Calamagrostis epigeios, Deschampsia caespitosa, Festuca ovina, Silene vulgaris, Viola tricolor) growing spontaneously in the close vicinity of a tailings pond and in a zone of eolian transmission of waste particles. Samples of substrates and plant roots were taken from sites in the B...

Spatial oscillations in soil contaminant concentration profiles are sometimes observed, but rarely commented on, or are attributed to noisy data. In this paper we consider a possible mechanism for the occurrence of oscillatory reactant profiles within contaminant plumes. The bioremediative reactions which occur are effected by bacteria, whose rôle is normally conceived of as being passive. Here...

Ion pair dispersive liquid- liquid microextraction (IP-DLLME) method combined with flame atomic absorption spectrometry was proposed for the determination of trace amounts of copper(II). By using pyrocatechol violet as chelating agent and cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide as an ion pairing agent, the trace amount of copper(II) was extracted in chloroform. The factors influencing the formation cop...

The goal of this work was to compare Pressurised Liquid Extraction (PLE), which is usually used to extract drugs from soil, and a modified-QuEChERS (Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged and Safe) method. Furthermore, several clean-up methods were evaluated. Selective Pressurised Liquid Extraction (SPLE) and Dispersive Solid Phase Extraction (dSPE) used after PLE and QuEChERS, respectively, wer...