The herbicide mobility in the soil profile is influenced by several processes: retention, transformation and transport. This phenomenon knowledge is essential to the perfect comprehension of these product destines in the environment. Among the several techniques used in such studies, the bioassay method presents optimum representativeness. Because these characteristics and the scarce information about the herbicide mobility in soils under tropical conditions, a bioassay was carried out aiming to verify the vertical movement of glyphosate and imazapyr in soil columns with different textures and chemical composition using the tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill var. Santa Clara) as test-plant. According to the results it may be concluded that: a) the bioassay detection boundary for both the glyphosate and imazapyr corresponds to the lowest I50 value obtained in the pattern curve that is 331.52 and 5.4 µg L-1 respectively; b) the concentrations of the biologically active glyphosate in the leaching products of Viçosa and Sabará soils are bellow the bioassay detection boundary; c) in the 1 cm column, the glyphosate presented a very low mobility in the studied soils; d) in the 30 cm column, the imazapyr mobility is greater in the sandy loam texture soil of Viçosa; e) the high clay and organic matter contents in Sabará soil present as the main retention factors of imazapyr in this soil.
Logistic; dose-response; herbicide