ENVIRONMENTAL FATE OF ANTIBIOTICS ORIGINATING FROM AGRICULTURAL BY-PRODUCTS AND WASTES

The overall goal of this Hatch project is to increase our understanding of physical and biogeochemical processes affecting the fate, degradation, transport, transformation, and dissipation of antibiotics in agroecosystems in the context of their biological activity potential.The following objectives will be used to address this research goal:Delineate the microscale distribution pattern of antibiotics in soil;Determine the strength, reversibility, and microsite preference of antibiotic sorption on soil solids;Assess spatiotemporal degradation of antibiotics in soil;Estimate leaching potential of antibiotic and antibiotic transformation products with laboratory lysimeters under various biogeochemical variables;Integrate the findings from Objectives 1-4 with existing research to develop a mass balance model for the prediction of toxicological impacts of antibiotics and manure- and biosolids-management recommendations.