Date: Wed, 16 Dec 2009 09:54:35 +0100
From: Javier Martinez-Abaigar <javier.martinez@unirioja.es>
To: Bryonet <bryonet-l@mtu.edu>
Subject: BRYONET: pre-emergent herbicide
Dear bryonetters,
Regarding the use of ultraviolet (UV) radiation for soil sterilization,
UV (in particular, the UV-C fraction) has been successfully used for the
sterilization of air (the interior of biological safety cabinets),
water, and surfaces of objects (including food surfaces). For more info,
see for example
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultraviolet_Germicidal_Irradiation.
However, UV radiation does not penetrate soil or non-UV-transparent
objects in general. In addition, it only penetrates the first few
centimeters of a water body (depending basically on the chemical
composition of water). Thus, if one wants to sterilize soil using UV,
soil should be disgregated in an extremely thin layer to assure that UV
radiation reaches the surface of every particle. Several other methods
seem to be much more effective for soil sterilization (see J.T. Trevors.
1996. Sterilization and inhibition of microbial activity in soil.
Journal of Microbiological Methods 26: 53-59). It must also be taken
into account that sterilization methods may change soil chemical and
biological properties (see S. Razavi Darbar, A. Lakzian. 2007.
Evaluation of chemical and biological consequences of soil sterilization
methods. Caspian J. Env. Sci. 5: 87-91).
Best,
Javier
--
**********************************
Dr. Javier Martinez-Abaigar
Universidad de La Rioja
Complejo Cientifico-Tecnologico
Avda. Madre de Dios 51
26006 Logroño (La Rioja)
(España, Spain)
Tel.: 34+941+299754
Fax: 34+941+299721
javier.martinez@unirioja.es
http://www.unirioja.es/ecophys/
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