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Pesticides vary greatly in their affinity for soil particles and their solubility in water.
Pesticides can contaminate water supplies by moving with eroded soil particles that they are attached to. Degradation occurs when pesticides are broken down into smaller chemical components by sunlight, water, or microbes. Degradation of pesticides into daughter compounds alters their ability to control pests and can change their toxicity characteristics. The microbes that degrade atrazine require air. For that reason, atrazine degrades much more rapidly in unsaturated soil, where air is present, than in water, where air is lacking.