Abstract
The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of the active substance of diflufenican and its combination with s-metolachlor or metribuzin, applied to yellow lupine, on the nitrogenase activity, the population size of selected groups of microorganisms, the activity of soil enzymes and their sensitivity to the tested preparations. All analysed preparations caused a reduction in the total number of bacteria and the number of actinobacteria and oligotrophic bacteria at the beginning of the vegetation period of yellow lupine. In the combination where diflufenican was used separately a stimulatory effect on nitrogenase activity was observed. The research revealed very high sensitivity of dehydrogenases and acid phosphatase to the soil contamination caused by application of all the tested herbicides. The dehydrogenases activity values were closely correlated with reduced populations of the groups of microorganisms. Diflufenican applied separately caused a relatively small negative effect on biological soil properties and consequently could have a smaller negative effect on soil environment contamination in comparison to other variants.
Highlights
The cultivation of leguminous plants has a wide range of advantages, including the production of atmospheric nitrogen, the recovery of nutrients washed out into deeper soil layers by means of the long root system, improvement of the soil structure by leaving air tracts, and increasing the sorption capacity of the soil complex and the content of humus by leaving a large mass of crop residues (Galbally et al 2010)
The results revealed that when the plants were at the full flowering stage and after the harvest, this parameter was most negatively influenced by the crop protection products combining diflufenican with s-metolachlor or with metribuzin (Figure 2)
Our results indicate that the crop protection products applied in the experiment, diflufenican and the product in combination with s-metolachlor or metribuzin, applied to yellow lupine had various effects on the groups of soil microorganisms, and the effects depended on the product applied and on the term of analyses
Summary
The cultivation of leguminous plants has a wide range of advantages, including the production of atmospheric nitrogen, the recovery of nutrients washed out into deeper soil layers by means of the long root system, improvement of the soil structure by leaving air tracts, and increasing the sorption capacity of the soil complex and the content of humus by leaving a large mass of crop residues (Galbally et al 2010). Soil nitrogen-fixing bacteria play an important role in leguminous plant productivity (Angelini et al 2013) as well as for other crops. Leguminous plants tend to increase the number of weeds, due to their slow initial growth. The accumulation of various contaminants in soil often deteriorates its properties, especially its bioactivity, including the process of biological nitrogen fixation by bacteria symbiotic with leguminous plants
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