Solid beef cattle manure application impacts on soil properties and 17β-estradiol fate in a clay loam soil

Abstract

Livestock manure applied to agricultural land is one of the ways natural steroid estrogens enter soils. To examine the impact of long-term solid beef cattle (Bos Taurus) manure on soil properties and 17β-estradiol sorption and mineralization, this study utilized a soil that had received beef cattle manure over 35 years. The 17β-estradiol was strongly sorbed and sorption significantly increased (P < 0.05) with increasing soil organic carbon content (SOC) and with an increasing annual rate of beef cattle manure. The 17β-estradiol mineralization half-life was significantly negatively correlated, and the total amount of 17β-estradiol mineralized at 90 days (MAX) was significantly positively correlated with 17β-estradiol sorption. The long-term rate of manure application had no significant effect on MAX, but the addition of fresh beef cattle manure in the laboratory resulted in significantly (P < 0.05) smaller MAX values. None of the treatments showed MAX values exceeding one-third of the 17β-estradiol applied.

Keywords:

• Estrogen
• 17β-estradiol
• long-term manure application
• fate

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for research funding. We also thank the University of Manitoba Graduate Fellowship for financial support to E. Caron. The authors thank Mr. Paul Panich, Mr. Brett Hill, Mrs. Pamela Caffin, Mr. Clarence Gilbertson and Mr. Dan Inaba at AAFC Lethbridge for their assistance to the laboratory experiments.