Simulation of the fate of the insecticide carbofuran in a rice field using a level 4 fugacity model

Abstract

The object of this work was to verify the utility of a level 4 fugacity model to simulate the environmental fate of the insecticide carbofuran when employed in the cultivation of irrigated rice. The model simulated the dynamic distribution of carbofuran in a system comprising of air, water, rice plants and the soil. The results indicated preferential compartments quality, and provided further knowledge of the fate of carbofuran in rice cultivation. Field experiments on rice were carried out to test the correspondence between simulated and measured carbofuran concentration in water and soil. Simulated concentrations had higher values in the compartments water > soil > rice plants > air. The model can be a useful tool for simulating the environmental fate of this insecticide and can be coupled with sensitivity and uncertainty analyses to test the influence of all input parameters on the outputs.