Combined ozonation and solarization for the removal of pesticides from soil: Effects on soil microbial communities

Pesticides have been used extensively in agriculture to control pests and soil-borne diseases. Most of these pesticides can persist soil harmful concentrations due their intrinsic characteristics interactions with soil. Soil solarization has demonstrated enhance pesticide degradation under field conditions. Recently, ozonation suggested as a feasible method for reducing the load agricultural fields. However, effects microbial community not studied so far. Here, we evaluate combined on Mediterranean For this purpose, physico-chemical enzyme activities biomass (through analysis fatty acids) diversity 16S rRNA ITS amplicon sequencing) communities were analyzed 50-day greenhouse experiment. The was increased by 20%, 28%, 33% solarized (S), surface (SOS), deep (SOD), respectively, comparison (untreated) Solarization its combination (SOS SOD) ammonium content well electrical conductivity, while negatively affected. Despite biocidal character ozone, several populations pesticide-degradation capacity showed increases relative abundance. Overall, plus ozone did exacerbate chemistry communities, but improve degradation.