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Project properties |
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| Title | Synergistic transport of pesticides and microplastics by preferential flow |
| Group | Soil Physics and Land Management group |
| Project type | thesis |
| Credits | 24-39 |
| Supervisor(s) | |
| Examiner(s) | Coen Ritsema |
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| Begin date | 2020/02/03 |
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| Description | Problem context
Pesticides and plastic mulching are widely used in agriculture and horticulture. However, pesticide residues and plastic debris have become an increasingly challenging problem for soil and environmental, as pesticides and small plastic particles accumulate, such as macro --, micro --, and nano plastic residues. New questions are arising as these pollutants leach into deeper soil layers and groundwater via preferential flow in areas with unstructured soil an d shadow groundwater level. Studies on soil particle facilitated pesticide transport and of dissolved pesticide leaching through soil profile have been published, but few address pesticide moving in the soil containing small plastic particles, which have similar sizes with soil particles but different properties. Research Objective/Question In these theses, our aim is ( i ) to understand pesticide distribution and transport with/without the presence of plastic particles in different soil layers and (ii) to compute the fraction of soil particle facilitated pesticide transport and plastic facilitated pesticide transport. In particular, the synergy of pesticide and plastic particles transport is of interest as the similarity between soil particles and microplastics, acting as a new vector, might have higher risks for soil ecosystems as well as groundwater. What is expected from the student (type of research) This work will comprise of lab experience and model simulations to interpret experiments. |
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