Trifluralin Impacts Soil Microbial Community and Functions

A 3-month experiment was designed to research the impact of trifluralin (TFL) on soil microbial communities and functions under the condition of greenhouse. In this work, silty loam from Langfang was treated with three doses of TFL (1,260, 12,600, and 126,000 g ha(-1)) and incubated for 90 days. The half-lives of TFL were 15-23 days in all cases. The bacterial and fungal diversities and community structures were impacted by TFL. The bacterial functions of chemoheterotrophy and sulfur oxidation were decreased shortly, but the hydrocarbon degradation ability was significantly increased in the results of functional annotation of prokaryotic taxa (FAPROTAX). For the predicted results of Tax4Fun, amino acid (arginine and proline) metabolism and ABC transporter were decreased significantly, while nitrogen metabolism and ribosome translation were significantly increased. In conclusion, this work aids us to understand the risk of TFL in soil more comprehensively.

Automated summary

This study investigated the impact of trifluralin on soil microbial communities and functions in a greenhouse setting. The results showed that trifluralin significantly affected the diversity and community structures of bacteria and fungi. It decreased the functions of chemoheterotrophy and sulfur oxidation, but significantly increased the ability of hydrocarbon degradation. Additionally, amino acid metabolism and ABC transporter were significantly reduced, while nitrogen metabolism and ribosome translation were significantly increased.