MICROBIAL DEGRADATION OF ENDOSULFAN IN AGRICULTURAL SOILS

Agricultural soils, pesticides and microbial diversity.

Pesticide effects on microbial community structure and activity in soil are reviewed, showing that methodological developments within the past few years have generated new possibilities for assessing pesticide effects. The first example is the use of mRNA quantification showing that nitrification processes are indeed very susceptible to some pesticides, and that there is correlation between the...

Microbial degradation of ethylenediaminetetraacetate in soils and sediments.

[C]ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA) was shown to be slowly biodegraded to CO(2) in soils and sediments under aerobic conditions and by microorganisms in mixed liquid culture. EDTA chelates of Cu, Cd, Zn, Mn, Ca, and Fe added to soil were equally degraded, while Ni-EDTA was degraded more slowly.

Application of microbial hot spots enhances pesticide degradation in soils.

Through transfer of an active, isoproturon degrading microbial community, pesticide mineralization could be successfully enhanced in various soils under laboratory and outdoor conditions. The microbes, extracted from a soil having high native ability to mineralize this chemical, were established on expanded clay particles and distributed to various soils in the form of microbial "hot spots". Bo...

Degradation of Endosulfan in Different Soils by Indigenous and Adapted Microorganisms

The anaerobic degradation of endosulfan by indigenous microorganisms from low-oxygen soils and sediments.

Indigenous mixed populations of anaerobic microorganisms from an irrigation tailwater drain and submerged agricultural chemical waste pit readily biodegraded the major isomer of endosulfan (endosulfan I). Endosulfan I was biodegraded to endosulfan diol, a low toxicity degradation product, in the presence of organic carbon sources under anaerobic, methanogenic conditions. While there was extensi...