Impact of agrochemicals used in maize crop on selected soil biota
2022
Shah, H.A. | Sattar, S. | Shah, A.Z. | Ahmad, S. | Altaf, A. | Shah, A.A. | Zada, A.
Field and laboratory experiments were conducted to examine the impact of agrochemicals on soil biota and on earthworms. Results from the field experiment showed that lambda-cyhalothrin (at 500 ml/ha) increased the bacterial population to 151 x 106CFU compared to the control plot with a population of 148.4 x 106CFU. In contrast, the lowest population (78.5 x 106CFU) was recorded in the mancozeb-treated plot (at 500 g/ha), showing a higher negative impact on the bacterial population than other treatments. In fungi, the lowest population (44.8 x 103CFU) was recorded in the mancozeb-treated plot, showing a high negative impact on the fungal population, followed by the nicosulfuron-treated plot (at 50 g/ha) with a population of 76.5 x 103CFU. The highest population was demonstrated by the control plot (121.9 x 103CFU) followed by the lambda-cyhalothrin-treated plot (82.2 x 103CFU), showing a less negative impact than the other treatments. Results from the laboratory experiment demonstrated significantly different effects of agrochemicals on earthworms in terms of mortality. Lambda-cyhalothrin proved more toxic compared to other chemicals with a maximum mean mortality of 56, followed by mancozeb with 45 and nicosulfuron with 33.3. Overall, lambda-cyhalothrin was found to have no impact on bacteria, moderate impact on fungi, and high impact on earthworms, while mancozeb had a high negative impact against bacteria and fungi but had less impact on earthworms compared to lambda-cyhalothrin. Nicosulfuron had moderate impact against all the soil biota.
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