Overcoming of Soil Contamination with Pesticides in Forest Nurseries Using the Activity of Microorganisms

• Main Authors: Irina A. Freiberg, Svetlana K. Stetsenko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Institute of Pesticides and Environmental Protection 2010-01-01
• Series: Pesticidi i Fitomedicina
• Subjects: Pine seedlings; Pesticides; Forest nurseries; Microbiological decomposition; Bioremediation
• Online Access: http://www.pesting.org.rs/download.php/documents/25-2/25-2%20177-182.pdf

The use of pesticides during cultivation of pine seedlings in forest nurseries resultsin the formation two phenotypes of teratomorph seedlings – conditionally normal andabnormal. Growing forest cultures from teratomorph seedlings leads to their low survivalrate. It is known that pesticides and their metabolic products can remain in soil for manyyears. It is therefore impossible to rely only on natural degradation of pesticides in soil. Apromising way of removing pesticides from soil is their microbiological decomposition.This method is preferable because there is a meliorative organic substance not far from forestnurseries – i.e. forest litter rich in microorganisms. The purpose of these experimentswas to examine the influence of forest litter applied on pesticide decomposition in soil andmorphology of pine seedlings. The rates of forest litter that were most effective in decompositionof pesticides and the activity of microbial communities in litter, depending on foreststand structure, were determined. Estimation of that action was based on the morphologyof seedlings (rate of pine seedlings with normal, conditionally normal and abnormalphenotypes), intensity of CO2 emission from soil and catalase activity, which correlates withthe number of soil microorganisms. The results of these experiments showed the mosteffective activity of forest litter at the application rate of 20 kg/m2. The number of seedlingswith normal phenotype rose from 32% up to 40%. Besides, it was noted that saprophyteswere most effective in pine forest litter, which is characterized by a more acid reaction ofsoil solution, while most others were rich in fungi. The highest number of normal phenotypeseedlings, intensity of CO2 emission and activity of soil catalase were correlated withthe microbiological activity of the applied pine forest litter.