Monday, November 5, 2007
93-2

Potential Interaction of Glyphosate with the Soil Environment.

L. Tribe, M.A. Fidanza, T.C. Gehris, and G.A. Khoury. Pennsylvania State University, Penn State Berks Campus, 2080 Tulpehocken Rd., Reading, PA 19610

Glyphosate (N-[phosphonomethyl] glycine) is one of the world’s most utilized and recognized herbicides for weed management in crop production systems.  Glyphosate is actually a phosphonic analogue of the natural amino acid glycine.  Glyphosate is considered a systemic, non-selective, postemergence herbicide effective against both broadleaf and grass weeds, and is especially useful for the control of perennial weeds.  The potential persistence of glyphosate in the soil is explored in this current research.  A theoretical model was developed to explore the interaction of glyphosate with montmorillonite clay.  The model was constructed using Spartan Pro (Wavefunction, Inc, Irvine, CA, USA), a commonly used chemical modeling computer program.  The model revealed that glyphosate was attracted to clay layers based on molecular mechanics calculations.  Correlations between the equilibrium interatomic distances suggest changes in energy associated with the stabilization of several configurations of this model.

 


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