Fungicidal activities of soil humic/fulvic acids as related to their chemical structures in greenhouse vegetable fields with cultivation chronosequence

In the background of rapid expansion of plastic greenhouse vegetable production in China, many environmental risks have emerged in recent years. In this study, the soils with a chronosequence in greenhouse vegetable fields were collected and the soil humic acids (HAs) and fluvic acids (FAs) were extracted and purified. The soil HAs and FAs were found to show inhibition activities against phytopathogenic fungi for the first time. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was performed to investigate the chemical structures of HAs and FAs. The variation of relative peak areas indicated the chemical structure of HAs become more complex and stable under continuous cultivation. The PCA analysis showed HAs and FAs could be distinctly separated from each other and cultivation years mainly determined the variation. Mantel test and RDA analysis indicated the active components (aliphatic peaks for HAs and COOH, OH peaks for FAs) had positive correlation with the inhibition rates of HAs and FAs against phytopathogenic fungi. According to our research, the active fungicidal components in soil HAs and FAs decreased along with the extension of cultivation years, which made the soil suffer more risk to phytopathogenic fugi. So we believe continuous cultivation too many years in PGVP systems is inadvisable.