Persistence of Carbaryl Pesticide in Environment Using System Dynamics Model
Astried Sunaryani(1) and Raden Tina Rosmalina(2)

(1)Research Center for Limnology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Cibinong 16911, Indonesia.
(2)Research Unit for Clean Technology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Bandung 40135, Indonesia

Abstract

Carbaryl, one of carbamate insecticides are used extensively for pest control in agriculture. The chemical is highly valued for its rapid action and relatively short environmental persistence. Because of its widespread and intensive use, residues of carbaryl have the potential to contaminate environment. This study aims to formulate a system dynamics model to simulate a degradation process of carbaryl. Since carbaryl was not readily volatilize, this study only estimates the concentration and degradation of carbaryl in soil and water. The result revealed that carbaryl degraded rapidly, with half-life of 7 days in soil and 2 days in water. Model was validated with a laboratory experiment using solid phase extraction reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography for determination of carbaryl concentration. With 12.82 % of percentage error compared to experimental value indicated that the prediction of developed model was acceptable and the model can be used to estimate the presence of carbaryl pesticide in soil and water. Findings from this study can be used for assessing the fate and also the impact of carbaryl pesticide in the environment.

Keywords: system dynamics model, carbaryl, carbamates, pesticides in environment

Topic: Environment, Health, and Safety