Premium
Degradation of organotin compounds in organic and mineral forest soils
Author(s) -
Huang JenHow,
Matzner Egbert
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal of plant nutrition and soil science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.644
H-Index - 87
eISSN - 1522-2624
pISSN - 1436-8730
DOI - 10.1002/jpln.200321243
Subject(s) - soil water , environmental chemistry , chemistry , decomposition , degradation (telecommunications) , wetland , environmental science , soil science , ecology , organic chemistry , telecommunications , computer science , biology
Broad industrial application of organotin compounds (OTC) leads to their release into the environment. OTC are deposited from the atmosphere into forest ecosystems and may accumulate in soils. Here, we studied the degradation of methyltin and butyltin compounds in a forest floor, a mineral, and a wetland soil with incubation experiments at 20 °C in the dark. OTC degraded slowly in soils with half‐lives estimated from 0.5 to 15 years. The first order degradation rate constants of OTC in soils ranged from 0.05 to 1.54 yr –1 . The degradation rates in soils were generally in the order mono‐ ≥ di‐ > tri‐substituted OTC. Stepwise dealkylation was observed in all cases of di‐substituted OTC, but only in some cases of tri‐substituted OTC. Decomposition rates of OTC in the forest floor were higher than in wetland and mineral soils. Tetramethyltin in the gas phase was not detected, suggesting little tin methylation in the wetland soils. Slow degradation of OTC in soils might lead to long‐term storage of atmospherically deposited OTC in soils.