Pedosphere 22(2): 178–189, 2012

ISSN 1002-0160/CN 32-1315/P

c 2012 Soil Science Society of China
Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press

Residues of Organochlorine Pesticides (OCPs) in Agricultural Soils

of Zhangzhou City, China∗1

YANG Dan1,2 , QI Shi-Hua1,2,∗2 , ZHANG Jia-Quan1,2 , TAN Ling-Zhi1,2 , ZHANG Jun-Peng1,2 , ZHANG Yuan1,2 ,
XU Feng1,2 , XING Xin-Li1,2 , HU Ying1,2 , CHEN Wei1,2 , YANG Jun-Hua3 and XU Mei-Hui3
1
State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074 (China)
2
School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074 (China)
3
Geological Survey of Fujian Province, Fuzhou 350013 (China)
(Received June 30, 2011; revised November 25, 2011)

ABSTRACT
A soil survey was conducted in Zhangzhou City, an important agricultural region in south of the Fujian Province, China.
93 surface soil samples were collected in the paddy fields, vegetable lands, orchards and tea plantations from Zhangzhou
City. An additional soil profile was sampled in a paddy field as previous research had indicated high concentrations of
organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in the paddy fields. Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDTs) ranged from 0.64–78.07 ng
g−1 dry weight and hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) ranged from 0.72–30.16 ng g−1 dry weight in the surface soil of the
whole study region. Ratios of α-HCH/γ-HCH < 4 and o, p -DDT/p, p -DDT > 1 in all soil samples suggested that lindane
and dicofol were widely applied in this region in the past. Concentrations of HCHs and DDTs in soils from the four land
use types followed the orders: paddy fields > vegetable lands > tea plantations > orchards and tea plantations > orchards
> paddy fields > vegetable lands, respectively. Analyses of the data showed no correlation (r < 0.1) between elevation and
OCPs contents in paddy fields, orchards and vegetable lands, indicated no significantly different features in distribution of
HCHs and DDTs in the soils from low lying plains and mountains and the unsystematic usage of OCPs, and highlighted
the fragmented nature of agricultural production in Zhangzhou, as well as the reemission of OCPs from the soils, where
high OCPs concentrations were found, in Longhai of Zhangzhou. In addition, no obvious relationship between the OCPs
and total organic carbon (TOC) (r < 0.3) was observed in the soil profile. The mean contribution of dicofol in total DDTs
was 66% in the whole Zhangzhou region. The approximate burdens of HCHs and DDTs in the surface layer of 0–20 cm
were 0.44 and 1.55 t, respectively. The storage of both HCHs and DDTs in soil surface layer (0–20 cm) accounts for 40%
burden of the soil layer of 0–50 cm (1.10 t HCHs and 3.87 t DDTs), in which the highest concentrations of OCPs were
observed in soil profile.
Key Words: dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDTs), hexachlorocyclohexane (HCHs), landform, land use types, vertical
distribution

Citation: Yang, D., Qi, S. H., Zhang, J. Q., Tan, L. Z., Zhang, J. P., Zhang, Y., Xu, F., Xing, X. L., Hu, Y., Chen, W.,
Yang, J. H. and Xu, M. H. 2012. Residues of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in agricultural soils of Zhangzhou City,
China. Pedosphere. 22(2): 178–189.

INTRODUCTION Voogt, 1999). The OCPs, including hexachlorocy-

Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) have caused
great concern for decades due to their persis-
tence in the environment, bioaccumulation through
food chains, and high toxicity to humans and
biota (Dimond and Owen, 1996; Jones and de
clohexanes (HCHs), dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes
(DDTs), aldrin, dieldrin, endrin, chlordane, heptachlor
and hexachlorobenzene (HCB), have been linked to
causing cancer, damage to the nervous system, repro-
ductive disorders, and disruption of the immune sys-
tem in humans (Rissato et al., 2006). These OCPs are

∗1
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41073070), and the Research Fund for the Doctoral
Program of Higher Education of China (No. 20090145110004).
∗2
Corresponding author. E-mail: shihuaqi@cug.edu.cn.
ORGANOCHLORINE PESTICIDES IN AGRICULTURAL SOILS 179

listed in the Stockholm Convention as persistent or- 5–10, 10–20, 20–30, 30–50, 50–70, 70–90, 90–110, 110–
ganic pollutants (POPs) that are to be banned by the 130 and 130–150 cm. The samples were sealed in clean
United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) (Blais polyethylene plastic bags and transported to the labo-
et al., 1998; UNEP, 2001). ratory where they were packed in amber glass bottles
Although the usage of OCPs has been banned in and immediately stored at −4 ◦ C until analysis.
China for more than 20 years, OCPs are still routinely
found in soils, air, waters, foodstuff, sediments and
even in humans (e.g., milk and blood) (Wang et al.,
2005, 2007; Ennaceur et al., 2007; Guo et al., 2008;
Li et al., 2008; Sun et al., 2009, 2010; Xing et al.,
2010). Soil is considered to be an important and po-
tential source of OCPs to other environmental media
and organisms after long-term use of OCPs for the pest
control in the agriculture.
The historical usage of OCPs may affect the OCPs
residuals in the soil. The spatial distribution charac-
teristic of pesticide application for crop protection in
China has been reported as follows: southeast > cen-
tral > northwest (Wang et al., 2005). Fujian Province
is in the southeast of China and Zhangzhou, a large
agricultural region, is located in the south of the
province. Therefore, the application of OCPs on crops
in Zhangzhou maybe considerable and likely to affect
the environment, including soil, water and air. Ad-
ditionally, human health could potentially be harmed
through crops uptake and subsequent accumulation
through the food chain (Ennaceur et al., 2007).
The main objectives of this study were i) to inves-
tigate the levels and distribution patterns of OCPs in Fig. 1 Map of the sampling locations in Zhangzhou City.
the agricultural region of Zhangzhou; ii) to compare
Standard mixtures of α-hexachlorocyclohexane
and assess the impact of four different land use types
(HCH), β-HCH, γ-HCH, δ-HCH, p,p -dichlorodipheny-
(paddy fields, vegetable lands, orchards and tea planta-
ldichloroethylene (DDE), p, p -dichlorodiphenyldichlo-
tions) on the OCPs residues in soil; and iii) to analyze
roethane (DDD), o, p -DDD, and p, p -dichlorodipheny-
the distribution of residual OCPs with elevation and
ltrichloroethane (DDT), as well as 2,4,5,6-tetrachloro-
at different soil depths.
m-xylene (TCMX), decachlorobiphenyl (PCB 209)
MATERIALS AND METHODS and pentachloronitrobenzene (PCNB), were pur-
chased from Ultra Scientific, USA. Dichloromethane
In March 2009, 93 surface soil samples (0–20 cm) (DCM) and n-hexane were obtained from Tedia Co.,
were collected, using a 12 km × 12 km sampling grid USA. Acetone was purchased from Fisher Scientific,
across the whole region of Zhangzhou (located in 116◦ USA. Anhydrous sodium sulphate was obtained from
54 –118◦ 8 E, 23◦ 34 –25◦ 15 N). This is the most im- Sinopharm Medicine Holding Co., Ltd., China. Silica
portant agricultural region in the south of the Fujian gel (75–150 μm) was purchased from Qingdao Haiyang
Province, southeast China (Fig. 1). Samples were taken Chemical Co., China. Before use, the silica gel and
from four different land use types, including paddy anhydrous sodium sulfate were Soxhlet-extracted for
fields, vegetable lands, orchards and tea plantations. 48 h with DCM, and then baked for 16 h at 130 ◦ C
At each site, four subsamples were collected randomly and for 6 h at 600 ◦ C, respectively. The silica gel was
and bulked together to form one composite sample. A then deactivated by purified water (3.0%, w/w) and
single soil profile was collected from a paddy field in stored in a desiccator. All glassware was washed with
the study region. The soil profile was sampled at 0–5, detergent, K2 Cr2 O7 -H2 SO4 solution, tap water and
180 D. YANG et al.

deionized water, and was finally baked at 180 ◦ C for
3.5 h to remove trace amounts of organics.
A 10 g sample of the soil was spiked with 20 ng
of TCMX and PCB 209 as recovery surrogates, and
was Soxhlet-extracted for 24 h with dichloromethane.
In the collection flask, activated copper granules were
added to eliminate elemental sulfur. The crude ex-
tract was concentrated and reduced to 2–3 mL by ro-
tary vacuum evaporation, and solvent-exchanged with
hexane. An alumina/silica (1:2, v/v) gel column (both
3% deactivated with H2 O) was used to purify the ex-
tract. The extract was then eluted with 30 mL of
dichloromethane/hexane (2:3, v/v) to obtain the OCP
fraction. The fraction was concentrated to 0.2 mL un-
der a gentle stream of nitrogen. Pentachloronitroben-
zene (PCNB) was added as an internal standard be-
fore gas chromatograph-electron capture detector (GC-
ECD) analysis.
OCPs analysis was conducted using an Agilent
7890A gas chromatograph equipped with a 63 Ni elec-
tron capture detector (GC-ECD). Separation was per-
formed using a fused silica capillary column DB-5 (30
m, 0.32 mm i.d., 0.25 μm film thickness). Nitrogen was
used as the carrier gas at a constant flow of 2.5 mL
min−1 . The temperature program was as follows: ini-
tial oven temperature was 100 ◦ C (equilibrium time 1
min), raised to 200 ◦ C at a rate of 4 ◦ C min−1 , then
increased to 230 ◦ C at 2 ◦ C min−1 , then finally raised
to 280 ◦ C at 8 ◦ C min−1 and, held for 15 min. The
injector and detector temperatures were set at 290 ◦ C
and 300 ◦ C, respectively. A sample of 2 μL was in-
jected into the GC-ECD for analysis. Concentrations
of individual target OCPs were quantified according to
a six-point internal standard calibration curve.
The spiked samples containing internal standard
compounds were analysed simultaneously with soil
samples. A procedural blank and a replicate sample
were run with every set of 12 samples analyzed to check
for contamination from solvents and glassware. The
limits of detection (LODs) were based on 3:1 S/N ra-
tio. The recoveries of surrogate (standard mixtures)
spiked in soil samples ranged from 70% to 105%. The
relative standard deviation (RSD) was less than 10%.
All OCP concentrations were expressed on an air-dried
weight basis. Correlation analysis was performed using
PASW (formerly SPSS) Statistics 18.0.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
OCPs in soils of study region
An overview of the concentrations of OCPs in the
surface soil of Zhangzhou is shown in Table I. Concen-
trations of DDTs (sum of p, p -DDT, p, p -DDE, p, p -
DDD and o, p -DDT) ranged from 0.64–78.07 ng g−1
with an average of 3.86 ng g−1 , and HCHs (sum of α-
HCH, β-HCH, γ-HCH and δ-HCH) ranged from 0.72–
30.16 ng g−1 with an average of 9.79 ng g−1 . Both
DDTs and HCHs had high detectable ratios, and α-
HCH, γ-HCH, δ-HCH and p, p -DDE residues were de-
tected in all samples.

TABLE I

Concentrations of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in the surface agricultural soil from Zhangzhou

Compounda) Mean Minimum Maximum Detectable rate Rb)

ng g−1 %
α-HCH 0.66±0.41 c)
0.18 2.90 100 0.254
β-HCH 1.27±2.28 NDd) 15.08 92.47 0.251
γ-HCH 1.36±3.18 0.27 28.76 100 0.136
δ-HCH 0.57±0.32 0.17 2.12 100 0.253
p, p -DDD 0.65±1.07 ND 7.23 98.92 0.272
p, p -DDE 2.38±3.68 0.07 26.85 100 0.277
p, p -DDT 3.86±10.13 ND 63.44 98.92 0.144
o, p -DDT 2.91±4.12 ND 39.25 98.92 0.091
HCHs 9.79±4.17 0.72 30.16 0.270
DDTs 3.86±14.76 0.64 78.07 0.249
a)
HCH = hexachlorocyclohexane; DDD = dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane; DDE = dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene; DDT
= dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane.
b)
Correlation coefficient between OCPs compound and total organic C.
c)
Mean±standard deviation.
d)
Not detected.
ORGANOCHLORINE PESTICIDES IN AGRICULTURAL SOILS
Concentrations of DDTs were higher than those of
HCHs (Fig. 2), which is similar to many studies else-
where for agricultural regions (Falandysz et al., 2001;
Wang et al., 2006; Hao et al., 2008; Jiang et al., 2009;
Sun et al., 2009). Generally in agricultural soils, the
half-life of DDT is 4–35 years (average 10–10.5 years),
whereas the half-lives of γ-HCH and α-HCH are only
20–50 days and 20 weeks, respectively (Dimond and
Owen, 1996; Harner et al., 1999). DDTs are therefore
likely to be more persistent and to stay longer in soil as
residues. DDT can be dehydrochlorinated to DDE and
reductively dechlorinated to DDD. These metabolites
are even more persistent than the parent compound
(Quensen et al., 1998; Meijer et al., 2001).
Among the HCH isomers, high concentrations of
β-HCH and δ-HCH indicated historical usage and
residues in the study region because their properties
are more stable than those of α-HCH and γ-HCH in the
environment. In comparison to each of the mean va-
lues, the soil concentrations of the HCH isomers, DDT,
and DDT metabolites varied greatly, which might be
due to different land use types.
Highest concentration of HCHs was found in the
Pinghe region, while concentrations of DDTs were
higher in Longhai, Longwen and Zhangpu regions. The
highly polluted regions were different, which probably
due to that the soils were sampled from different land
use types in different regions. Soil samples of Pinghe
Fig. 2 Spatial distribution of (a) hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) and (b) dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDTs) in
soils of Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, China.
181
were mostly taken from paddy fields and vegetable
lands. Samples from Longhai, Longwen and Zhangpu
regions were mostly from paddy fields and orchards,
which are mostly distributed in the low lying regions.
Therefore, the land use types and landform were stud-
ied further to assess the residues of OCPs in agricul-
tural soils of Zhangzhou.
OCPs in soils under four land uses
OCP concentrations in soils from paddy fields,
vegetable lands, orchards and tea plantations are sum-
marized in Table II. Concentrations of HCHs and
DDTs in soils under four land uses from highest to
lowest were in the order: paddy fields > vegetable
lands > tea plantations > orchards, and tea planta-
tions > orchards > paddy fields > vegetable lands,
respectively. This discrepancy of sequence may be in-
fluenced by the different land use types, which may re-
quire various pesticide regimes to be used and will also
have different soil conditions. The different properties
of the OCPs could also have an effect. The high solubil-
ity of HCHs in comparison to DDTs (Loganathan and
Kannan, 1994) may explain why HCHs were found to
have elevated concentrations in paddy fields that were
submerged in water.
It has been widely recognized that technical HCH
is a mixture of 60%–70% α-HCH, 2%–12% β-HCH,
10%–15% γ-HCH (ratio of α-HCH/γ-HCH is from 4
182 D. YANG et al.

TABLE II

Concentrations and ratios of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in the agricultural soils of four land use types in Zhangzhou
Compounda) Paddy field Vegetable land Orchard Tea plantation

Mean±SDb) Range Mean±SD Range Mean±SD Range Mean±SD Range

−1
ng g
α-HCH 0.80±0.52 0.25–2.90 0.59±0.27 0.27–1.48 0.55±0.26 0.18–1.26 0.63±0.25 0.46–0.93
β-HCH 1.24±1.54 NDc) –6.18 1.36±2.64 0.15–12.32 1.06±2.58 ND–15.08 1.43±1.04 0.35–2.42
γ-HCH 0.66±0.43 0.25–2.12 0.53±0.18 0.30–0.93 0.49±0.22 0.17–1.26 0.55±0.13 0.40–0.63
δ-HCH 1.83±4.87 0.36–28.76 1.46±2.34 0.44–10.05 0.93±0.90 0.27–4.42 0.61±0.17 0.41–0.75
p, p -DDD 2.08±1.04 ND–6.14 2.18±0.87 0.01–4.69 4.22±1.23 0.16–39.25 1.74±0.58 0.86–2.48
p, p -DDE 1.97±2.10 0.18–8.99 1.62±1.67 0.22–6.21 3.17±5.30 0.07–26.85 2.99±2.15 0.10–7.74
p, p -DDT 0.73±3.74 ND–5.80 0.67±1.55 0.06–3.40 0.56±2.65 0.01–7.23 0.45±0.20 0.01–1.12
o, p -DDT 2.89±1.28 ND–63.44 2.13±0.99 0.08–6.02 4.66±6.86 0.13–52.27 16.90±5.06 0.01–50.46
α-HCH/γ-HCH 1.25±0.55 0.57–3.54 1.11±0.31 0.63–2.01 1.15±2.04 0.68–2.04 1.16±0.38 0.73–1.48
p, p -(DDD+ 4.75±10.16 ND–59.43 1.79±2.04 0.12–7.79 1.58±1.65 0.06–6.04 39.35±47.59 0.18–117.40
DDE)/p, p -DDT
o, p -DDT/p,p -DDT 6.53±21.39 ND–125.93 2.37±3.75 0.01–16.81 3.20±4.27 0.08–19.75 74.75±100.47 0.02–216.09
HCHs 4.53±5.29 0.98–30.16 3.94±3.93 1.48–16.82 3.03±3.07 0.72–18.30 3.21±1.36 2.08–4.73
DDTs 7.67±12.84 0.64–78.07 6.60±3.49 1.81–15.39 12.61±11.69 1.47–72.97 22.08±30.00 2.23–60.18
a)
HCH = hexachlorocyclohexane; DDD = dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane; DDE = dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene; DDT
= dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane; HCHs = sum of α-HCH, β-HCH, γ-HCH and δ-HCH; DDTs = sum of p, p -DDT, p, p -
DDE, p, p -DDD and o, p -DDT.
b)
Standard deviation.
c)
Not detected.

to 7), and other minor isomers, with lindane having
a high ratio of γ-HCH (Iwata et al., 1993). Generally,
the ratio of α-HCH/γ-HCH is used to identify whether
the pollution source is technical HCH or lindane. In
the present study, the ratios of α-HCH/γ-HCH were all
less than 4 and varied slightly within these four land
use types, showing that lindane was applied widely.
The technical DDTs contains more p, p -DDT
(about 85%) than o, p -DDT (about 15%), while co-
mpositions of dicofol are exactly opposite (Qiu et al.,
2005). The anaerobic conditions in the tea plantations
and orchards increased DDT degradation, making the
values of p, p -DDE/p, p -DDD in these two land use
types greater than those of the other two land types.
Mean ratios of p, p -(DDE+DDD)/p, p -DDT in the
four land use types were all more than 1, indicat-
ing that historical applications of technical DDT were
widespread in agricultural soils in Zhangzhou. How-
ever, these ratios varied significantly for the four land
types, indicating that different land conditions, such as
the degree of soil tillage, permeability and the strength
of different microbial activities influenced the degrada-
tion of DDT in soils. The degradation of DDT in the
tea land was more pronounced than the others. The
concentrations of o, p -DDT were almost equal to or
greater than those of p, p -DDT in all studied land use
types, indicating dicofol input over the whole study
region. In tea plantation soils, the DDT levels were
significantly higher than in the soils under other three
land uses and around 7 times greater than the levels of
total HCHs. The ratio of o, p -DDT/p, p -DDT (Table
II) in tea plantations was at least 11 times greater than
that of the other land types, suggesting high pollution
levels of dicofol in tea plantations.
In order to know the exact contribution of dico-
fol in total DDTs, the ratio (o, p -DDT/p, p -DDT) of
technical DDT and dicofol were used to estimate the
source apportionment of DDTs. FD which stands for
the fraction of DDT from dicofol formulation, was cal-
culated by the ratios of o, p -DDT/p, p -DDT of techni-
cal DDT, dicofol, and result of the present study (Qiu
and Zhu, 2010). The soil FD of the four land use types
and the whole study area are given in Table III.
Principal component analysis (PCA) combined
with multiple linear regression analysis (MLRA) was
also used to estimate the source apportionment of
DDTs (Larsen and Baker, 2003; Yang et al., 2008). It
was found that mean contribution of dicofol-type DDT
is 23% to the paddy fields, 26% to the vegetable lands,
82% to the orchards, 66% to the tea plantations and
ORGANOCHLORINE PESTICIDES IN AGRICULTURAL SOILS 183

74% to the whole Zhangzhou region (Table III).
The results of these two methods were different,
which is similar to the report of Qiu and Zhu (2010),
possibly due to that the PCA method is more or
less arbitrary and might generate negative values, and
the ratios of o, p-DDT/p, p-DDT were influenced by
complex factors in their long resident time in the soil.
Therefore, we used the mean value of these two method
results to describe the contribution of dicofol in our
work. The highest contributions of dicofol-type DDT
was found in tea plantations (73%), which meet the
supposition on the preceding analysis of DDTs pollu-
tion.
The concentrations and ratios of OCPs in various
uses of soils reported from other regions of China, as
well as from other countries are listed in Table IV. The

TABLE III

Contribution of dicofol-type dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) to each land use type

Methoda) Contribution of dicofol-type DDT

Paddy field Vegetable land Orchard Tea plantation Zhangzhou region

%
FD 58±39b) 50±32 58±34 79±64 57±31
PCA-MLRA 23 26 82 66 74
Mean 41 38 70 73 66
a)
FD = the fraction of DDT from dicofol formulation; PCA-MLRA = principal component analysis (PCA) combined with
multiple linear regression analysis (MLRA).
b)
Mean±standard deviation.

TABLE IV

Concentrations of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in soils of diverse land use types in some other regions

Region Land use HCHsa) DDTsb) α-HCH/ o, p -DDT/ Reference

γ-HCH p, p -DDT
ng g−1
Nantong, China Cotton field - 183.07±171.68c) - 0.64d) Yang et al., 2008
Taihu Lake, China Vegetable lands 21 82c) 1.16d) 0.65d) Gao et al., 2005
Taihu Lake, China Paddy field 28.53±10.77 50.23±28.70c) 1.4d) 1.44d) Wang et al., 2007
Beijing, China Irrigated soils 3.70±0.52 31.27±6.65 0.52e) 0.06 Sun et al., 2009
Shanghai, China Agricultural land 2.41±2.32 21.41±22.43 0.51f) 1.33f) Jiang et al., 2009
Fujian, China Tea land 3.7 8.3 - - Sun et al., 1997
Hong Kong, China Farmland 6.53±0.17 1.85±1.64 6.0 2.25d) Zhang et al., 2006
South Korea Rice growing 5.22 2.93g) - - Kim and Smith, 2001
Corn Belt, USA Agricultural land - 9.63 - 0.38f) Aigner et al., 1998
Southern USA Cotton field 0.30h) 211±343c) 2.66d) 0.21f) Bidleman and Leone,
2004
Southern Ontario, Agricultural land - 18 500i) 0.29d) - Kurt-Karakus et al.,
Canada 2006
Leipzig-Halle, Germany Agricultural land 23.7–173 4.60–10.00g) 0.18e) - Manz et al., 2001
UK Background in 1986 < 0.88h) 0.34 < 0.05 - Meijer et al., 2001
a)
HCHs (hexachlorocyclohexanes) refer to the sum of α-HCH, β-HCH, γ-HCH and δ-HCH.
b)
DDTs (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes) refer to the sum of p, p -DDT, p, p -DDE, p, p -DDD and o, p -DDT.
c)
Sum of p, p -DDT, p, p -DDE, p, p -DDD, o, p -DDT and o, p -DDE; mean±standard deviation.
d)
Calculated by the mean±standard deviation of each HCH isomers or DDT metabolite.
e)
Calculated by the percentage of each isomers.
f)
Calculated by mean of DDT metabolites.
g)
Sum of p, p -DDD, p, p -DDE and p, p -DDT.
h)
Sum of α-HCH and γ-HCH.
i)
Sum of p, p -DDT, p, p -DDE, p, p -DDD, o, p -DDT, o, p -DDE and o, p -DDD.
184
level of HCHs (mean of 3.03–4.53 ng g−1 ) in the soil of
the current study was similar to the values of the agri-
cultural land (2.41 ng g−1 ) from Shanghai (Jiang et
al., 2009), the irrigated soil (3.70 ± 0.52 ng g−1 ) from
Beijing (Sun et al., 2009), the agricultural soil (6.53 ±
0.17 ng g−1 ) from Hong Kong (Zhang et al., 2006) and
the rice growing land and industrial land (5.22 ng g−1 )
from South Korea (Kim and Smith, 2001). However,
it was much lower than the concentrations of HCHs in
the vegetable and paddy fields from Taihu Lake (Gao
et al., 2005; Wang et al., 2007) and the agricultural
soil (23.7–173 ng g−1 ) from Leipzig-Halle region, Ger-
many (Manz et al., 2001). Ratios of α-HCH/γ-HCH in
agricultural area (mean of 1.11–1.25, Table II) of the
present study did not show much variation compared
to other regions (all less than 4) except Hong Kong
(6.0) (Zhang et al., 2006), indicating that usage of lin-
dane would be the main source of HCH in agricultural
soils.
Compared with the research in Fujian in 1997, the
present study shows a similar mean of total HCHs in
tea plantations soils, but the mean of total DDTs was
about 2–3 times higher (Sun et al., 1997). Without
detailed information on the sample sites in the 1997
study, it is not clear whether the much higher DDTs
concentrations in soils were from the follow-up appli-
cation of DDTs or other reasons. In comparison with
other regions of China, the level of DDTs in tea plan-
tation soil (22.08 ng g−1 ) was similar to that of agri-
cultural soil (21.41 ng g−1 ) from Shanghai (Jiang et
al., 2009) and the irrigated soil (31.27 ± 6.65 ng g−1 )
from Beijing (Sun et al., 2009), while in paddy fields,
DDTs concentrations (7.67 ng g−1 ) were about 7 times
lower than the values (50.23 ± 28.70 ng g−1 ) of Taihu
Lake (Wang et al., 2007). For vegetable land the con-
centration of DDTs (6.6 ng g−1 ) in the present study
was 12 times higher than for Taihu Lake (82 ng g−1 )
(Gao et al., 2005). For DDTs, however, in the four land
use types, soil concentrations were much higher than
agricultural soil (1.85 ± 1.64 ng g−1 ) from Hong Kong
(Zhang et al., 2006), but less than, and significantly
lower than the soil from cotton fields (183.07 ± 171.68
ng g−1 ) in Nantong (Yang et al., 2008), respectively.
Compared with soil from outside China, the concen-
tration of DDTs in soil of paddy field (7.67 ng g−1 )
in Zhangzhou was approximately 2–3 times more than
that in rice growing and industrial areas (2.93 ng g−1 )
of south Korea (Kim and Smith, 2001). The four land
types had higher DDT concentrations than the agricul-
tural land (9.63 ng g−1 ) in the United States corn belt
(Aigner et al., 1998), and agricultural land (4.60–10.00
D. YANG et al.
ng g−1 ) in Leipzig–Halle region of Germany (Manz et
al., 2001), but significantly lower than cotton field soil
(211 ± 343 ng g−1 ) from the southern US (Bidleman
and Leone, 2004) and agricultural land (18 500 ng g−1 )
from Southern Ontario, Canada (Kurt-Karakus et al.,
2006). Ratios of o, p -DDT/p, p -DDT (mean of 2.37–
74.75 ng g−1 ) in this study were much higher than
those of other regions (Table II), and reflected the no-
table input from dicofol in the Zhangzhou agricultural
area.
The mean values of HCHs and DDTs in the present
study were significantly higher than background levels
reported in UK soils (Meijer et al., 2001), but not
over the first grade of Chinese Environmental Qua-
lity Standard for Soils (GB15618-1995) (HCHs, 50 ng
g−1 ; DDTs, 50 ng g−1 ). Overall, the OCPs levels in
soils of agricultural soils from Zhangzhou can be cate-
gorized as ‘slight pollution’. Nevertheless, this level
of contamination should not be considered insignif-
icant. In light of possible bioaccumulation of OCPs
through food chain into higher trophic organisms, in-
cluding human beings, even low levels of contamina-
tion could exert harmful effects on ecology and human
health (Zhang et al., 2006). It was reported that the
concentrations of HCHs and DDTs in human milk in
Hong Kong and Guangzhou, China were higher than
those of some developed countries including the Swe-
den, Canada, the United States and Germany (New-
some et al., 1995; Noren, 1988; Noren and Meironyte,
2000). Therefore it is important to pay more attention
to domestic pesticide usage in agricultural production.
As Zhangzhou City is an important agricultural region
in Fujian Province, application of OCPs should receive
improved and unified management and control.
OCPs in different landform regions
Zhangzhou City, with many estuary sedimentary,
coastal and valley plains, has the highest mountain in
the region with an altitude of 1 544 m. The range of al-
titudes for sampling sites selected in this study was ap-
proximately 800 meters (0–791 m above sea level). As-
suming the study region was a slope from low lying
plains to uplands, the distribution of OCPs would be
expected to vary with elevation owing to their physi-
cal and chemical properties. These properties result in
the OCPs settling out of the atmosphere and deposi-
ting on terrestrial surfaces as temperature decreases.
Positive relationships between the OCP concentrations
and increasing altitude have been reported by many re-
searches (Simonich and Hites, 1995; Blais et al., 1998;
Daly et al., 2007). In the present study, concentrations
ORGANOCHLORINE PESTICIDES IN AGRICULTURAL SOILS 185

of OCPs in agricultural soil did change significantly
with elevation, but had no obvious regular patterns.
It should also be noted that in the present study the
different land use types were not evenly distributed
over the whole elevation range, thus variable inputs of
OCPs at different altitudes may have influenced resi-
dual OCPs in the soil.
In this study, soils from paddy fields, vegetable
lands, orchards and tea plantations were sampled in
the altitude ranges of 0–791, 0–439, 2–336 and 490–539
m, respectively. For the first three land use types, the
soils were sampled within a relative large variation in
altitude, thus the discussion of different distributions
of OCPs in plains and mountains, and relationship be-
tween altitude and concentrations of OCPs will focus
on the samples taken from paddy fields, vegetable lands
and orchards only.
The distributions of HCHs and DDTs at diffe-
rent altitudes are shown in Fig. 3. In paddy fields
and orchards, concentrations of HCHs and DDTs va-
ried only very slightly with increasing altitude, impl-
ying poor correlations between altitude and OCPs con-
centrations. However, the correlation between HCHs
and DDTs was significant (r = 0.883, P < 0.01) in
paddy fields but poor in orchards (r < 0.1), indicating
HCHs and DDTs appeared to originate from the simi-
lar source in all the paddy fields. As HCHs correlated
with DDTs (r = 0.562, P < 0.05) in vegetable lands,
they probably originated from similar sources, but the
correlation of altitude with HCHs was much lower than
with DDTs. This could be due to the greater solubi-
lity and volatility of HCHs (Loganathan and Kannan,
1994). This suggested that they could easily migrate
to other regions by transportation via irrigation wa-
ter or through volatilization to the atmosphere. Thus,
the contents of HCHs in surface soil are not as stable
as DDTs. In vegetable lands, high concentrations of
HCHs and DDTs both focused on the plain regions,
which were below an altitude of 100 m. This may be
due to the fact that the plain is an intensive agricul-
tural region, where high application of OCPs is re-
quired. Additionally, the concentration of HCHs and
DDTs varied considerably below the altitude of 100
m, indicating the use of OCPs was non-uniform.
Overall, concentrations of HCHs and DDTs in
plain and mountain regions did not show significantly
different distributions, indicating a fragmentation of
the agricultural model in Zhangzhou. Furthermore,

Fig. 3 Correlation between altitude and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) contents in soils of three land use types. HCHs
(hexachlorocyclohexanes) refer to the sum of α-HCH, β-HCH, γ-HCH and δ-HCH; DDTs (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes)
refer to the sum of p, p -DDT, p, p -DDE, p, p -DDD and o, p -DDT.
186
high OCP concentrations were observed in Longhai
(Fig. 2). OCPs residuals could potentially be persistent
in the soil around the site for a long time, and may have
acted as continuous point source of pollution via emis-
sion to the atmosphere. The re-release of OCPs from
Longhai might be an important factor influencing the
spatial distribution of OCPs in Zhangzhou.
Vertical distribution of OCPs in agricultural soil
The concentrations and distribution features of
OCPs in the agricultural soil profile are shown in Fig. 4.
This figure shows similar distribution patterns of HCHs
and DDTs in relation to depth in paddy fields, de-
creasing from topsoil to subsoil and showing a rapid
decline at a depth of 50 cm. Similar results were re-
ported for soil profiles in cultivated land from Tianjin
(Wang et al., 2006) and paddy fields in the Yangtze
River Delta Region (Zhang et al., 2009), in which, the
reason was attributed to that, plough pan of Stagnic
Anthrosols, formed by the compaction of tillage ma-
chine, probably played an important role in retarding
the OCPs downward-transported from the upper layer
of soil. Thus, horizon of 50 cm in the present study
probably performed as plough pan led to this result.
In the depth range of 0–50 cm, the concentration of
β-HCH was significantly higher than that of any other
HCH isomers. It was approximately 2 times greater
than that of α-HCH, indicating high levels of degrada-
tion of technical HCHs in the relatively shallow agri-
cultural soils in Zhangzhou. This is because of the iso-
merization of α- to β-HCH and of γ- via α- to β-HCH,
Fig. 4 Vertical distributions of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in soil profile. HCH = hexachlorocyclohexane; DDE =
dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene; DDD = dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane; DDT = dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane.
D. YANG et al.
which has the highest stability of the HCH isomers
(Manz et al., 2001).
The concentration of total DDTs residues in sur-
face soils was significantly higher than the total HCHs.
HCHs are more water-soluble than DDTs (Loganathan
and Kannan, 1994), and so more downward migration
and accumulation were expected. Therefore, the con-
centration disparity between HCHs and DDTs dimi-
nished along with depth. The burden of γ-HCH was
much lower than other HCH isomers above the 50 cm
depth. This may be due to the shorter half-life of γ-
HCH in HCH isomers (Willett et al., 1998), and there-
fore will degrade at a faster rate compared to other
HCH isomers. In the waterlogged soil of the paddy
fields, the rate of degradation was around 2–4 times
greater than other isomers (Zhang et al., 1983). Ano-
ther reason may be due to the limited number of sam-
pling profile. The ratios of α-HCH/γ-HCH were not
in the range of 4–7, which demonstrates lindane input
here after technical HCHs were banned. The ratios
of p, p -DDE/p, p -DDD were greater than 1 at depths
above 30 cm and were less than 1 in deeper soil, possi-
bly due to the amount of oxygen decreasing with depth.
The DDT residue data showed that the concentrations
of o, p -DDT were much lower and only observed above
the depth of 30 cm, indicating lower historical use and
more current use of dicofol. As technical DDTs were
banned in China in 1983, dicofol began to be used in
agriculture as a replacement, and was produced for
malaria control for domestic use and export from China
(Qiu et al., 2005).
Total organic carbon (TOC) plays an important
ORGANOCHLORINE PESTICIDES IN AGRICULTURAL SOILS
role in the OCPs fate and behaviour in soils, because
OCPs tend to accumulate and persist in organic rich
soil as they have an affinity with organic matter. Some
researches have shown significant correlation between
TOC and OCPs. However, the present analysis demon-
strated there was no obvious relationship (Table I) be-
tween the accumulations of persistent organic pollu-
tants with the TOC in the soils. This outcome is sim-
ilar to research conducted in the agricultural land in
the suburbs of Beijing (Chen et al., 2005) and the soils
on the eastern slope of the Tibetan Plateau (Xing et
al., 2010). Frequent ploughing, crop alternative and
the quality and quantity of irrigation water all affect
the fate of OCPs in agricultural soil. It may therefore
be difficult to assign a single soil-geochemical factor
to predict the distribution of OCP residues in soils at
regional scale (Hao et al., 2008).
Estimations of soil burdens in Zhangzhou region
were based on the mean concentrations of OCPs in
the top 20 cm surface soils. Assuming a soil density of
2 400 kg m−3 and area of Zhangzhou of 12 607 km2 , the
estimates of the amounts of the HCHs and DDTs bur-
den (Zhang et al., 2009) in the layer of 0–20 cm were
0.44 and 1.55 t, respectively. Moreover, assuming that
the sampled soil profile of the current study is repre-
sentative for the whole agricultural areas of Zhangzhou
City, the amounts of DDTs and HCHs burden in the
top 50 cm could be estimated, as the highest concen-
trations of OCPs were observed between 0–50 cm of
the soil profile. The result showed that about 1.10 t
HCHs and 3.87 t DDTs were stored in the 0–50 cm
layer in the whole Zhangzhou region. It is interesting
to find that storage of HCHs and DDTs in soil surface
layers (0–20 cm) only accounted for 40% of the 0–50
cm layer, meaning that the majority of the HCH and
DDT residual are buried in the layer of 20–50 cm. One
reason is probably due to that the sampled soil profile
cannot represent the whole Zhangzhou region; whilst
the other reason maybe the loss of OCPs via volatiliza-
tion to the air due to the more active soil-air exchange
in the top 20 cm than the buried layer.
CONCLUSIONS
In the present study, soil concentrations of DDTs
were found to be higher than those of HCHs in
Zhangzhou. Out of all of the land cover types, the
paddy fields retained the highest amount of HCHs due
to the soil being submerged in water. The tea plan-
tation soils contained the highest amount of DDTs
due to the intensive application of dicofol, and the
187
highest concentration of dicofol (73%) in total DDTs
was found in tea plantations. The significantly differ-
ent ratios of p, p -(DDE+DDD)/p, p -DDT in the four
land use types demonstrated that land use type influ-
enced the degradation of DDT in soils. Concentrations
of HCHs and DDTs in plain and mountain soils did
not show significantly different features in distribution,
which may be due to the fragmentation of the agricul-
tural model in Zhangzhou and the re-release of OCPs
source from Longhai where soil OCPs concentrations
were high. As for the depth distributions of HCHs
and DDTs in soil profile, concentrations of HCHs and
DDTs all decreased from topsoil to subsoil with a rapid
decline under plough pan of Stagnic Anthrosols. There
was no obvious relationship between the OCPs and
TOC in the soil profile. Based on the rough estimate
of the amounts of the HCHs and DDTs burden in the
surface soil (0–20 cm layer) and top 50 cm soil, we
found that the majority of the HCH and DDT resid-
ual were buried in the layer of 20–50 cm in Zhangzhou
region.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are grateful for the assistance of Miss
Lan Lan, Miss Zhang Wan-Jia, Miss Qi Shu-Lei for soil
extraction in the State Key Laboratory of Biogeology
and Environmental Geology, China University of Geo-
sciences, China, and sincerely appreciate the work of
Prof. Kevin C Jones and Dr. Andrew Sweetman, Lan-
caster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, UK
in reviewing the manuscript and providing suggestions.
REFERENCES
Aigner, E. J., Leone, A. D. and Falconer, R. L. 1998. Con-
centrations and enantiomeric ratios of organochlorine
pesticides in soils from the US corn belt. Environ. Sci.
Technol. 32: 1162–1168.
Bidleman, T. F. and Leone, A. D. 2004. Soil-air exchange
of organochlorine pesticides in the Southern United
States. Environ. Pollut. 128: 49–57.
Blais, J. M., Schindler, D. W., Muir, D. C. G., Kimpe, L. E.,
Donald, D. B. and Rosenberg, B. 1998. Accumulation
of persistent organochlorine compounds in mountains
of western Canada. Nature. 395: 585–588.
Chen, Y., Wang, C. X. and Wang, Z. J. 2005. Residues
and source identification of persistent organic pollu-
tants in farmland soils irrigated by effluents from bio-
logical treatment plants. Environ. Int. 31: 778–783.
Daly, G. L., Lei, Y. D., Teixeira, C., Muir, D. C. G. and Wa-
nia, F. 2007. Pesticides in western Canadian mountain
188
air and soil. Environ. Sci. Technol. 41: 6020–6025.
Dimond, J. B. and Owen, R. B. 1996. Long-term residue
of DDT compounds in forest soils in Maine. Environ.
Pollut. 92: 227–230.
Ennaceur, S., Gandoura, N. and Driss, M. R. 2007.
Organochlorine pesticide residues in human milk of
mothers living in northern Tunisia. B. Environ. Con-
tam. Tox. 78: 325–329.
Falandysz, J., Brudnowska, B., Kawano, M. and Wakimoto,
T. 2001. Polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine
pesticides in soils from the southern part of Poland.
Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 40: 173–178.
Gao, H. J., Jiang, X., Wang, F., Bian, Y. R., Wang, D. Z.,
Deng, J. C. and Yan, D. Y. 2005. Residual levels and
new inputs of chlorinated POPs in agricultural soils
from Taihu Lake region. Pedosphere. 15: 301–309.
Guo, L. L., Qiu, Y. W., Zhang, G., Zheng, G. J., Lam, P. K.
S. and Li, X. D. 2008. Levels and bioaccumulation of
organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) and polybrominated
diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in fishes from the Pearl River
estuary and Daya Bay, South China. Environ. Pollut.
152: 604–611.
Hao, H. T., Sun, B. and Zhao, Z. H. 2008. Effect of land
use change from paddy to vegetable field on the residues
of organochlorine pesticides in soils. Environ. Pollut.
156: 1046–1052.
Harner, T., Wideman, J. L. and Jantunen, L. M. M. 1999.
Residues of organochlorine pesticides in Alabama soils.
Environ. Pollut. 106: 323–332.
Iwata, H., Tanabe, S., Sakai, N. and Tatsukawa, R.
1993. Distribution of persistent organochlorines in the
oceanic air and surface seawater and the role of ocean
on their global transport and fate. Environ. Sci. Tech-
nol. 27: 1080–1098.
Jiang, Y. F., Wang, X. T., Jia, Y., Wang, F., Wu, M. H.,
Sheng, G. Y. and Fu, J. M. 2009. Occurrence, distribu-
tion and possible sources of organochlorine pesticides in
agricultural soil of Shanghai, China. J. Hazard. Mater.
170: 989–997.
Jones, K. C. and de Voogt, P. 1999. Persistent organic pol-
lutants (POPs): state of the science. Environ. Pollut.
100: 209–221.
Kim, J. H. and Smith, A. 2001. Distribution of organochlo-
rine pesticides in soils from South Korea. Chemosphere.
43: 137–140.
Kurt-Karakus, P. B., Bidleman, T. F., Staebler, R. M. and
Jones, K. C. 2006. Measurement of DDT fluxes from
a historically treated agricultural soil in Canada. Env-
iron. Sci. Technol. 40: 4578–4585.
Larsen, R. K. III and Baker, J. E. 2003. Source apportion-
ment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the urban
atmosphere: a comparison of three methods. Environ.
Sci. Technol. 37: 1873–1881.
Li, J., Lin, T., Qi, S. H., Zhang, G., Liu, X. and Li, K.
C. 2008. Evidence of local emission of organochlorine
pesticides in the Tibetan plateau. Atmos. Environ. 42:
D. YANG et al.
7397–7404.
Loganathan, B. G. and Kannan, K. 1994. Global organo-
chlorine contamination trends: an overview. Ambio.
23: 187–191.
Manz, M., Wenzel, K. D., Dietze, U. and Schüürmann,
G. 2001. Persistent organic pollutants in agricultural
soils of central Germany. Sci. Total. Environ. 277:
187–198.
Meijer, S. N., Halsall, C. J., Harner, T., Peters, A. J., Ock-
enden, W. A., Johnston, A. E. and Jones, K. C. 2001.
Organochlorine pesticide residues in archived UK soil.
Environ. Sci. Technol. 35: 1989–1995.
Newsome, W. H., Davies, D. and Doucet, J. 1995. PCB and
organochlorine pesticides in Canadian human milk—
1992. Chemosphere. 30: 2143–2153.
Noren, K. 1988. Changes in the levels of organochlo-
rine pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, dibenzo-p-
dioxins and dibenzofurans in human milk from Stock-
holm, 19721985. Chemosphere. 7: 39–49.
Noren, K. and Meironyte, D. 2000. Certain organochlo-
rine and organobromine contaminants in Swedish hu-
man milk in perspective of past 20–30 years. Chemo-
sphere. 40: 1111–1123.
Qiu, X. G., Zhu, T., Yao, B., Hu, J. X. and Hu, S. W. 2005.
Contribution of dicofol to the current DDT pollution
in China. Environ. Sci. Technol. 39: 4385–4390.
Qiu, X. H. and Zhu, T. 2010. Using the o, p -DDT/p, p -
DDT ratio to identify DDT sources in China. Chemo-
sphere. 81: 1033–1038.
Quensen, J. F. III, Mueller, S. A., Jain, M. K. and Tiedje, J.
M. 1998. Reductive dechlorination of DDE to DDMU
in marine sediment microcosms. Science. 280: 722–724.
Rissato, S. R., Galhiane, M. S., Ximenes, V. F., de An-
drade, R. M. B., Talamoni, J. L. B., Libânio, M., de
Almeida, M. V., Apon, B. M. and Cavalari, A. A.
2006. Organochlorine pesticides and polychlorinated
biphenyls in soil and water samples in the Northeast-
ern part of São Paulo State, Brazil. Chemosphere. 65:
1949–1958.
Simonich, S. L. and Hites, R. A. 1995. Global distribution
of persistent organochlorine compounds. Science. 269:
1851–1854.
Sun, J. H., Feng, J. L., Liu, Q. and Li, Q. L. 2010. Distri-
bution and sources of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs)
in sediments from upper reach of Huaihe River, East
China. J. Hazard. Mater. 184: 141–146.
Sun, K., Zhao, Y., Gao, B., Liu, X. T., Zhang, Z. Y. and
Xing, B. S. 2009. Organochlorine pesticides and poly-
brominated diphenyl ethers in irrigated soils of Beijing,
China: Levels, inventory and fate. Chemosphere. 77:
1199–1205.
Sun, W. J., Chai, J. M. and Huan, B. 1997. The analysis of
the pesticide residue in tea garden soil and tea leaves.
J. Fujian Agr. U. (in Chinese). 26: 39–43.
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). 2001.
Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollu-
ORGANOCHLORINE PESTICIDES IN AGRICULTURAL SOILS
tants. Available online at http://www.pops.int/docu-
ments/convtext/convtext en.pdf (verified on Novem-
ber 16, 2011).
Wang, F., Jiang, X., Bian, Y. R., Yao, F. X., Gao, H. J., Yu,
G. F., Munch, J. C. and Schroll, R. 2007. Organochlo-
rine pesticides in soils under different land usage in the
Taihu Lake region, China. J Environ. Sci. 19: 584–590.
Wang, T. Y., Lu, Y. L., Zhang, H. and Shi, Y. J. 2005.
Contamination of persistent organic pollutants (POPs)
and relevant management in China. Environ. Int. 31:
813–821.
Wang, X. J., Piao, X. Y., Chen, J., Hu, J. D., Xu, F. L. and
Tao, S. 2006. Organochlorine pesticides in soil profiles
from Tianjin, China. Chemosphere. 64: 1514–1520.
Willett, K. L., Ulrich, E. M. and Hites, R. A. 1998. Differe-
ntial toxicity and environmental fates of hexachlorocy-
clohexane isomers. Environ. Sci. Technol. 32: 2197–
2207.
Xing, X. L., Qi, S. H., Zhang, Y., Yang, D. and Odhi-
189
ambo, J. O. 2010. Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs)
in soils along the eastern slope of the Tibetan Plateau.
Pedosphere. 20: 607–615.
Yang, X. L., Wang, S. S., Bian, Y. R., Chen, F., Yu, G.
F., Gu, C. G. and Jiang, X. 2008. Dicofol applica-
tion resulted in high DDTs residue in cotton fields from
northern Jiangsu Province, China. J. Hazard. Mater.
150: 92–98.
Zhang, H. B., Luo, Y. M. and Li, Q. B. 2009. Burden and
depth distribution of organochlorine pesticides in the
soil profiles of Yangtze River Delta Region, China: Im-
plication for sources and vertical transportation. Geo-
derma. 153: 69–75.
Zhang, H. B., Luo, Y. M., Zhao, Q. G., Wong, M. H. and
Zhang, G. L. 2006. Residues of organochlorine pesti-
cides in Hong Kong soils. Chemosphere. 63: 633–641.
Zhang, S. M., Ma, X. F., An, Q. and Li, X. G. 1983. BHC
residue in paddy soil and its pollution to rice. Acta
Pedol. Sin. (in Chinese). 20: 79–84.