Imazethapyr has been widely used in Rio Grande do Sul since the development of Clearfield TechnologyTM(CL) on rice, in a formulated mixture of imazethapyr + imazapic (75 + 25g L-1). However, the use of such technology raised the problem of herbicide carryover, which might affect non-tolerant crops in rotation with different intensities. The plant injury is related, among other factors, with the herbicide position in the soil profile. The present work had the objective of determining the depth positioning of imazethapyr on a lowland soil cultivated with rice in two soil tillage system: conventional system (CS) and no till system (NT), in an area where CL rice had been cultivated for two years followed by non tolerant rice in the third year. Herbicide concentration in soil samples was analyzed by HPLC-DAD. There is a higher concentration of imazethapyr in the topsoil (0-5cm) on the CS, when compared to the NT, while it leached until 20cm in both systems. In the CS, imazethapyr were uniformly distributed in the first 15 cm of soil, whereas in NT, imazethapyr were accumulated in 5-10 and 10-15cm layers.
herbicide percolation; residual; soil plowing; HPLC; Oryza sativa
