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Pesticide seed dressings can affect the activity of various soil organisms and reduce decomposition of plant material

BACKGROUND: Seed dressing with pesticides is widely used to protect crop seeds from pest insects and fungal diseases. While there is mounting evidence that especially neonicotinoid seed dressings detrimentally affect insect pollinators, surprisingly little is known on potential side effects on soil...

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Autores principales: Zaller, Johann G., König, Nina, Tiefenbacher, Alexandra, Muraoka, Yoko, Querner, Pascal, Ratzenböck, Andreas, Bonkowski, Michael, Koller, Robert
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4989535/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27534619
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12898-016-0092-x
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author Zaller, Johann G.
König, Nina
Tiefenbacher, Alexandra
Muraoka, Yoko
Querner, Pascal
Ratzenböck, Andreas
Bonkowski, Michael
Koller, Robert
author_facet Zaller, Johann G.
König, Nina
Tiefenbacher, Alexandra
Muraoka, Yoko
Querner, Pascal
Ratzenböck, Andreas
Bonkowski, Michael
Koller, Robert
author_sort Zaller, Johann G.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Seed dressing with pesticides is widely used to protect crop seeds from pest insects and fungal diseases. While there is mounting evidence that especially neonicotinoid seed dressings detrimentally affect insect pollinators, surprisingly little is known on potential side effects on soil biota. We hypothesized that soil organisms would be particularly susceptible to pesticide seed dressings as they get in direct contact with these chemicals. Using microcosms with field soil we investigated, whether seeds treated either with neonicotinoid insecticides or fungicides influence the activity and interaction of earthworms, collembola, protozoa and microorganisms. The full-factorial design consisted of the factor Seed dressing (control vs. insecticide vs. fungicide), Earthworm (no earthworms vs. addition Lumbricus terrestris L.) and collembola (no collembola vs. addition Sinella curviseta Brook). We used commercially available wheat seed material (Triticum aesticum L. cf. Lukullus) at a recommended seeding density of 367 m(−2). RESULTS: Seed dressings (particularly fungicides) increased collembola surface activity, increased the number of protozoa and reduced plant decomposition rate but did not affect earthworm activity. Seed dressings had no influence on wheat growth. Earthworms interactively affected the influence of seed dressings on collembola activity, whereas collembola increased earthworm surface activity but reduced soil basal respiration. Earthworms also decreased wheat growth, reduced soil basal respiration and microbial biomass but increased soil water content and electrical conductivity. CONCLUSIONS: The reported non-target effects of seed dressings and their interactions with soil organisms are remarkable because they were observed after a one-time application of only 18 pesticide treated seeds per experimental pot. Because of the increasing use of seed dressing in agriculture and the fundamental role of soil organisms in agroecosystems these ecological interactions should receive more attention.
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spelling pubmed-49895352016-08-19 Pesticide seed dressings can affect the activity of various soil organisms and reduce decomposition of plant material Zaller, Johann G. König, Nina Tiefenbacher, Alexandra Muraoka, Yoko Querner, Pascal Ratzenböck, Andreas Bonkowski, Michael Koller, Robert BMC Ecol Research Article BACKGROUND: Seed dressing with pesticides is widely used to protect crop seeds from pest insects and fungal diseases. While there is mounting evidence that especially neonicotinoid seed dressings detrimentally affect insect pollinators, surprisingly little is known on potential side effects on soil biota. We hypothesized that soil organisms would be particularly susceptible to pesticide seed dressings as they get in direct contact with these chemicals. Using microcosms with field soil we investigated, whether seeds treated either with neonicotinoid insecticides or fungicides influence the activity and interaction of earthworms, collembola, protozoa and microorganisms. The full-factorial design consisted of the factor Seed dressing (control vs. insecticide vs. fungicide), Earthworm (no earthworms vs. addition Lumbricus terrestris L.) and collembola (no collembola vs. addition Sinella curviseta Brook). We used commercially available wheat seed material (Triticum aesticum L. cf. Lukullus) at a recommended seeding density of 367 m(−2). RESULTS: Seed dressings (particularly fungicides) increased collembola surface activity, increased the number of protozoa and reduced plant decomposition rate but did not affect earthworm activity. Seed dressings had no influence on wheat growth. Earthworms interactively affected the influence of seed dressings on collembola activity, whereas collembola increased earthworm surface activity but reduced soil basal respiration. Earthworms also decreased wheat growth, reduced soil basal respiration and microbial biomass but increased soil water content and electrical conductivity. CONCLUSIONS: The reported non-target effects of seed dressings and their interactions with soil organisms are remarkable because they were observed after a one-time application of only 18 pesticide treated seeds per experimental pot. Because of the increasing use of seed dressing in agriculture and the fundamental role of soil organisms in agroecosystems these ecological interactions should receive more attention. BioMed Central 2016-08-17 /pmc/articles/PMC4989535/ /pubmed/27534619 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12898-016-0092-x Text en © The Author(s) 2016 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Zaller, Johann G.
König, Nina
Tiefenbacher, Alexandra
Muraoka, Yoko
Querner, Pascal
Ratzenböck, Andreas
Bonkowski, Michael
Koller, Robert
Pesticide seed dressings can affect the activity of various soil organisms and reduce decomposition of plant material
title Pesticide seed dressings can affect the activity of various soil organisms and reduce decomposition of plant material
title_full Pesticide seed dressings can affect the activity of various soil organisms and reduce decomposition of plant material
title_fullStr Pesticide seed dressings can affect the activity of various soil organisms and reduce decomposition of plant material
title_full_unstemmed Pesticide seed dressings can affect the activity of various soil organisms and reduce decomposition of plant material
title_short Pesticide seed dressings can affect the activity of various soil organisms and reduce decomposition of plant material
title_sort pesticide seed dressings can affect the activity of various soil organisms and reduce decomposition of plant material
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4989535/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27534619
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12898-016-0092-x
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