Pesticides and the microbial world: a review of disturbance, resilience, and the road to recovery.
Nasseh N, Tahergorabi M
Soil Health
The vegetables in your garden depend on billions of soil microbes to break down nutrients into forms roots can absorb — and the pesticides used on nearby farms or in your own yard may be quietly weakening that invisible workforce.
Soil is alive with trillions of tiny organisms that recycle nutrients, build soil structure, and keep plants fed. Pesticides — even at recommended doses — can throw these microbial communities off balance, sometimes killing helpful species or shifting who's in charge underground. This review pulls together decades of research to help scientists and farmers understand when soil bounces back on its own and when the damage lingers.
Key Findings
Pesticides and their breakdown products can both inhibit and stimulate soil microbial communities depending on soil chemistry, contamination history, and management practices — there is no single universal response.
Key soil enzymes (dehydrogenases, ureases, and phosphatases) are sensitive indicators of pesticide disturbance, but their usefulness as recovery markers is limited and context-dependent.
Long-term microbial resilience and recovery after pesticide exposure remain poorly understood, highlighting a critical gap in current soil health science.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Pesticides routinely used on crops can disrupt the soil microbes that keep farmland healthy, but the extent of damage and recovery depends heavily on soil conditions, chemical type, and land management history. This review calls for better monitoring of soil enzyme activity as an early-warning system for pesticide harm.
Abstract Preview
Pesticides are widely used tools in modern crop production, yet their impacts on soil ecosystems are often context-dependent and not fully quantified. Over several decades, research has shown that ...
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