Assessing the influence of agrochemicals on the rate of copper corrosion in the vadose zone of arable land Part 1: field experiments

Abstract Part of a project that has attempted to answer the question ‘does the application of agrochemicals accelerate the corrosion of metals in the top 50cm of the soil? ’ is reported. We have approached the question by a combination of field-based experiments (on two sites), establishing laboratory microcosms (one involving simple aqueous systems and the other a series of simulated burial experiments) and by using geochemical modelling techniques to understand the processes involved. Two different experimental approaches in the field are documented — one using in situ monitoring of corrosion potentials and the other assessing the degree of induced corrosion using image analysis on recovered samples. The first was carried out on arable land close to the University of Bradford to which we applied different fertilizer regimes. The second was established on land owned by the University of Newcastle at Palace Leas, Morpeth, Northumberland, which has a documented field management regime extending back over one hundred years. We focus here on a sub-set of the data relating to the behaviour of the thinnest samples of copper in each case. There does seem to be some evidence of an effect resulting from the applied fertilizer, but the data are sometimes contradictory. We suggest a number of improvements for future field experiments that monitor in situ corrosion in the vadose zone.