"Reducing Environmental Pollution from Veterinary Antibiotics, Endocrine Disruptive Chemicals, and Pathogens in Livestock Manure"

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Canada produces over 180 million tonnes of livestock manure annually, containing both conventional and emerging contaminants. While a lot of research has been carried out to understand the fate and transport of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds in manure, relatively little work has been done to look into the risks of soil and water pollution from antibiotics, growth promoters, natural and synthetic estrogenic and androgenic hormones, and pathogenic bacteria, present in the manure. Biochar, the charcoal produced from pyrolysis burning of biomass, can be applied as a soil amendment as it possesses a large surface area and develops high surface charge as it weathers in soil, allowing it to capture excess fertilizer nutrients and thus prevent their leaching from soil, retain soil moisture and serve as a preferred habitat for decomposer microorganisms. It also has a very long residence time in soil (hundreds to thousands of years. Biochar could play a potentially important role in controlling and reducing the mobility of veterinary antibiotics, growth promoting chemicals, steroidal estrogenic and androgenic hormones, pathogens, and pesticides in soil. It is hypothesized that biochar would be an effective agent that binds antibiotics, hormones, and pathogens from livestock manure, thereby preventing their transport from the field. It may also provide favorable physical and chemical conditions for colonization and survival of pathogens in soil. The long-term goal of my research program is to critically examine the role of biochar soil amendments in reducing soil and water pollution from various emerging chemicals in livestock manure. The short-term objectives are to quantify and substantiate the role of biochar in reducing environmental pollution from veterinary antibiotics as well as natural and synthetic steroid hormones in livestock manure in a coarse-textured soil. To the best of our knowledge, there is little published work on the effect of biochar on veterinary pharmaceuticals, male and female steroid hormones, and pathogens.