The overall objective of my research is to contribute evidence supporting the following hypotheses: 1) Enhanced degradation of herbicides or degradation products can occur in soils with long-term exposure to the chemical; 2) enhanced degradation of herbicide wastes can occur in rhizosphere soils from contaminated sites; 3) the presence of plants at pesticide-contaminated sites enhances the dissipation of pesticide wastes as a result of increased degradation by microbial communities in the rhizosphere. Specific objectives my research are:

1. To test pesticide-contaminated soils in radiotracer studies for their degradative capabilities on freshly applied mixtures of herbicides

2. To quantify specific herbicide degraders

3. To compare degradation of an aged mixture of herbicides in vegetated and nonvegetated soil

4. To test for enhanced degradation of a major herbicide metabolite in soils that have had long-term exposure of the parent compound