Lysimeter experiments with metolachlor in Tor Mancina (Italy)

The paper describes one of the four datasets used to test pesticide leaching models within the Working Group Modelling of the EC European Program COST Action 66 ‘Fate of Pesticides in the Soil and the Environment’. The Tor Mancina dataset is the result of a 3-year lysimeter experiment carried out near Rome (Italy) on a clay-loam calcareous fluvisol, which aimed to asses the risk of groundwater contamination from some herbicides commonly used in the Mediterranean area. Parameters available for modelling are water percolation, bromide leaching, and the occurrence of metolachlor residues in leachates. All parameters refer to two irrigation treatments to evaluate the effect of different water supplies (398 and 548 mm). The total amount of percolated water was equal to 660 mm as an average for both the treatments, with a total rainfall of 2432 mm. The average concentration of metolachlor in the leachate was 0.008 0.012 m gl ˇ1 , and maximum concentration 1.63 22.9 m gl ˇ1 . # 2000 Elsevier Science