Dissipation of pesticides and responses of bacterial, fungal and protistan communities in a multi-contaminated vineyard soil

Abstract

The effect of pesticide residues on non-target microorganisms in multi-contaminated soils remains poorly understood. In this study, we examined the dissipation of commonly used pesticides in a multi-contaminated vineyard soil and its effect on bacterial, fungal, and protistan communities. We conducted laboratory soil microcosm experiments under varying temperature (20°C and 30°C) and water content (20 % and 40 %) conditions. Pesticide dissipation half-lives ranged from 27 to over 300 days, depending on the physicochemical properties of the pesticides and the soil conditions. In both autoclaved and non-autoclaved soil experiments, over 50 % of hydrophobic pesticides (dimethomorph > isoxaben > simazine = atrazine = carbendazim) dissipated within 200 days at 20°C and 30°C. However, the contribution of biodegradation to the overall dissipation of soluble pesticides (rac-metalaxyl > isoproturon = pyrimethanil > S-metolachlor) increased to over 75 % at 30°C and 40 % water content. This suggests that soluble pesticides became more bioavailable, with degradation activity increasing with higher temperature and soil water content. In contrast, the primary process contributing to the dissipation of hydrophobic pesticides was sequestration to soil. High-throughput amplicon sequencing analysis indicated that water content, temperature, and pesticides had domain-specific effects on the diversity and taxonomic composition of bacterial, fungal, and protistan communities. Soil physicochemical properties had a more significant effect than pesticides on the various microbial domains in the vineyard soil. However, pesticide exposure emerged as a secondary factor explaining the variations in microbial communities, with a more substantial effect on protists compared to bacterial and fungal communities. Overall, our results highlight the variability in the dissipation kinetics and processes of pesticides in a multi-contaminated vineyard soil, as well as their effects on bacterial, fungal, and protistan communities.

Keywords: Bacterial; Fungal and protistan communities; Pesticide biodegradation; Pesticide dissipation; Soil biodiversity; Vineyard soil diversity.