ABSTRACT
Laboratory studies of pesticide sorption during transport can provide insight into the basic processes affecting atrazine behaviour. This paper presents the results of miscible displacement experiments performed on undisturbed soil cores in order to determine the governing processes and to assess the retention capacity for atrazine of the sediments and aquifer underlying an artificial recharge basin. The saturation degree of adsorbed atrazine is found to be a possible key factor in the adsorption capacity of the sediment. It is also shown that non-linear adsorption may be a controlling process in atrazine transport when dealing with low pesticide concentrations. Non-linear adsorption should therefore be taken into consideration when deriving the isotherm. Further research to be done in this area is presented.
