Effects of prosulfocarb and hydrogels on soil fungal communities.
Baćmaga M, Wyszkowska J, Kucharski J
Soil Health
Every bag of herbicide or water-retention gel you apply to your vegetable beds reshapes the invisible fungal world beneath your feet — and that world determines whether your soil feeds your plants or fights them.
Healthy soil is teeming with fungi that break down dead matter and help plants thrive. Scientists found that a popular weed-killing chemical used in wheat fields wiped out many of these helpful fungi and left plant-disease-causing fungi in charge. Surprisingly, even hydrogels — the polymer beads sometimes added to soil to hold water — also knocked back certain beneficial fungal groups.
Key Findings
Prosulfocarb significantly inhibited the growth of all identified fungal groups and reduced four separate diversity measures (Shannon-Wiener, Simpson, Pielou, and Evenness) compared to untreated soil.
Hydrogels specifically suppressed the fungal phylum Ascomycota and the genera Talaromyces, Chaetomium, and Cladorrhinum — groups that include important decomposers and biocontrol agents.
Both prosulfocarb and hydrogels shifted the soil fungal community toward dominance by plant pathogens, with reduced proportions of beneficial saprotrophs, endophytes, and parasites.
chevron_right Technical Summary
A common wheat herbicide (prosulfocarb) and soil-water-retention polymers (hydrogels) both disrupt the beneficial fungal communities living in agricultural soil, reducing diversity and shifting the balance toward plant pathogens.
Abstract Preview
Fungi are a crucial component of soil ecosystems, playing a vital role in nutrient cycling and significantly influencing soil fertility. Despite growing interest in their ecological role, the impac...
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