Sorption, Transport and Transformation of Atrazine in Soils, Minerals and Composts: A Review

Atrazine is a widely used herbicide for controlling weeds on both agricultural and nonagricultural land, which is equally detected in water supplies beyond safe concentrations. Although the presence of atrazine metabolites is an indication of herbicide degradation, some of them still exhibit toxicity, greater water solubility and weaker interaction with soil components than atrazine. Hence, studies with atrazine in the environment are of interest because of its potential to contaminate drinking water sources. Data on atrazine availability for transport, plant uptake, and microbial degradation and mineralization are therefore required to perform more comprehensive and realistic environmental risk assessments of its environmental fate. This review presents an account of the sorption-desorption phenomenon of atrazine on soil and other sorbents by revisiting the several mechanisms of atrazine-sorbent binding reported in the literature. The retention and transport of atrazine in soils; the influence of organic matter on atrazine sorption; the interactions of atrazine with humic substances, atrazine uptake by plants, atrazine bioccumulation and microbial degradation; atrazine transformation in composting environments; and finally atrazine removal by biosorption are discussed.