B51C-0446
Modeling the Impact of Heterogeneous Spatial Distribution of Soil Microbes on Pesticide Biodegradation at the Centimeter Scale

Friday, 18 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Tristan Babey1, Jean-Raynald De Dreuzy2, Marc Pinheiro3, Patricia Garnier3, Laure Vieublé-Gonod3 and Alain Rapaport4, (1)Géosciences Rennes, Rennes Cedex, France, (2)CNRS, Paris Cedex 16, France, (3)INRA AgroParisTech, UMR Environnement et Grandes Cultures, Thiverval-Grignon, France, (4)INRA Montpellier, UMR MISTEA, Montpellier, France
Abstract:
Micro-organisms and substrates may be heterogeneously distributed in soils. This repartition as well as transport mechanisms bringing them into contact are expected to impact the biodegradation rates. Pinheiro et al [2015] have measured in cm-large reconstructed soil cores the fate of an injection of 2,4-D pesticide for different injection conditions and initial distributions of soil pesticide degraders. Through the calibration of a reactive transport model of these experiments, we show that: i) biodegradation of diffusion-controlled pesticide fluxes is favored by a high Damköhler number (high reaction rate compared to flux rate); ii) abiotic sorption processes are negligible and do not interact strongly with biodegradation; iii) biodegradation is primarily governed by the initial repartition of pesticide and degraders for diffusion-controlled transport, as diffusion greatly limits the flux of pesticide reaching the microbial hotspot due to dilution. These results suggest that for biodegradation to be substantial, a spatial heterogeneity in the repartition of microbes and substrate has to be associated with intermittent and fast transport processes to mix them.