Impact of microorganisms, humidity, and temperature on the enantioselective degradation of imazethapyr in two soils.

Imazethapyr (IM) is a chiral herbicide composed of an (-)-R-enantiomer and an (+)-S-enantiomer with differential herbicidal activity. In this study, the effects of microbial organisms, humidity, and temperature on the selective degradation of the (-)-R- and (+)-S-enantiomers of IM were determined in silty loam (SL) and clay loam (CL) soil with different pH values. The (-)-R-enantiomer of IM was preferentially degraded in two soils under different microorganism, humidity, and temperature conditions. The average half-lives of R-IM ranged from 43 to 66.1 days and were significantly shorter (P < 0.05) than those of S-IM, which ranged from 51.4 to 79.8 days. The enantiomer fraction (EF = (+)-S-enantiomer/((-)-R-enantiomer + (+)-S-enantiomer)) values were used to describe the enantioselectivity of degradation of IM were >0.5 (P < 0.05) in two unsterilized soils under different humidity and temperature conditions. The highest EF values were observed at unsterilized CL soil samples under 50% maximum water-holding capacity (MWHC) and 25 °C environmental conditions. The EF values of the IM enantiomers were significantly higher (P < 0.05) in CL soils (higher pH = 5.81) and were 0.581 (unsterilized) and 0.575 (50% MWHC; 25 °C) compared with those recorded in SL soil (lower pH = 4.85). In addition, this study revealed that microbial organisms preferentially utilized the more herbicidal active IM enantiomer.