Evaluation of methyl bromide alternatives efficacy against soil-borne pathogens, nematodes and soil microbial community

PLoS One. 2015 Feb 27;10(2):e0117980. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0117980. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Methyl bromide (MB) and other alternatives were evaluated for suppression of Fusarium spp., Phytophthora spp., and Meloidogyne spp. and their influence on soil microbial communities. Both Fusarium spp. and Phytophthora spp. were significantly reduced by the MB (30.74 mg kg-1), methyl iodide (MI: 45.58 mg kg-1), metham sodium (MS: 53.92 mg kg-1) treatments. MS exhibited comparable effectiveness to MB in controlling Meloidogyne spp. and total nematodes, followed by MI at the tested rate. By contrast, sulfuryl fluoride (SF: 33.04 mg kg-1) and chloroform (CF: 23.68 mg kg-1) showed low efficacy in controlling Fusarium spp., Phytophthora spp., and Meloidogyne spp. MB, MI and MS significantly lowered the abundance of different microbial populations and microbial biomass in soil, whereas SF and CF had limited influence on them compared with the control. Diversity indices in Biolog studies decreased in response to fumigation, but no significant difference was found among treatments in PLFA studies. Principal component and cluster analyses of Biolog and PLFA data sets revealed that MB and MI treatments greatly influenced the soil microbial community functional and structural diversity compared with SF treatment. These results suggest that fumigants with high effectiveness in suppressing soil-borne disease could significantly influence soil microbial community.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biodiversity
  • Biomass
  • Cluster Analysis
  • Fumigation
  • Hydrocarbons, Brominated / pharmacology*
  • Microbial Viability / drug effects
  • Microbiota / drug effects*
  • Nematoda / drug effects*
  • Soil / parasitology*
  • Soil Microbiology*

Substances

  • Hydrocarbons, Brominated
  • Soil
  • methyl bromide

Grants and funding

This research was supported by the Projects of China Ministry of Agriculture (2110402), Beijing Team-Innovation, Modern Agricultural and Industrial Technology Innovation System of China and National Natural Science Foundation of China (40871131). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.