SPP 1315

Biogeochemical Interfaces in Soil

Does maize litter stimulate the microbial degradation of MCPA and Phenanthren in soil?
Holger Pagel1, Christian Poll2, Omar Saleh2, Rieke Trittin2, Marion Devers3, Fabrice Martin-Laurent3, Joachim Ingwersen1, Ellen Kandeler2 & Thilo Streck1
1

Institute of Soil Science and Land Evaluation, Biogeophysics, University of Hohenheim 2 Institute of Soil Science and Land Evaluation, Soil Biology, University of Hohenheim 3 Laboratory of Soil Microbiology and Geochemistry, INRA-University of Burgundy Material & Methods
Soil Tab. 1 Soil properties Luvisol from a research farm in Scheyern (Germany) Plough horizon 0-30 cm, passed through 2 mm sieve and Texture pH (CaCl2) homogenized 40% sand 45% silt 5,3 Experiment 15% clay 0, 10, 50 mg kg-1 MCPA or PHE -1 0, 10 or 20 g kg maize litter Incubation at 20C in microcosms: 7, 21, 42 days Methods CO2-production in microcosms (CO2-sorption in NaOH) MCPA/ PHE-contents in soil (HPLC-UV and GC-MS) Analysis of phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) Abundance of tfdA functional genes (DNA extraktion, quantitative PCR, see Fig. 1) Corg 1,4% C/ N 10,3

Introduction
The detritusphere is one of the hot spots in soil that show a high microbial activity due to an enrichment of readily available substrates. The use of 4-chloro-2-methylphenoxy-acetic acid (MCPA) and phenanthrene (PHE) offers the opportunity to follow the microbial use and the transport of two compounds that differ in sorptive properties, but show similar decay rates under laboratory conditions. In a first microcosm experiment, we tested the overall effect of maize litter on the degradation of MCPA and PHE in soil.

Fig. 1

The tfdA gene encodes a a-ketoglutarate(a-KG) dependent dioxygenase which catalyses the initial step in the degradation of MCPA.

Results

k=0,0071 day-1; R2=0,79

k=0,0251 day-1; R2=0,99

k=0,0324 day-1; R2=0,97 k=0,1047 - 0,1212 day-1 R2=0,99

Fig. 2 + 3 Addition of litter increased CO2 production. MCPA and PHE treatments without litter addition did only slightly enhance CO2 production after an incubation period of 25 days. Litter stimulated MCPA degradation only at high amendment, whereas litter did not modify the degradation of PHE. Fig. 4 The addition of maize litter had a positive effect on microorganisms, in particular on fungi. MCPA reduced the content of bacterial PLFAs. Fungal PLFA increased with MCPA addition, especially in combination with litter. PHE reduced bacterial and fungal PLFAs up to 21 days. Fig. 5 The relative abundance of MCPA degraders increased significantly in the 50 mg kg-1 treatment.

k=0,0593 - 0,1293 day-1 R2=0,87 - 0,99

Fig. 2

Cumulative CO2 production during incubation, mean of 3 replicates standard deviation

Fig. 3

Remaining MCPA/ PHE in soil and first order degradation kinetics: C=C0e-kt; with C0 - initial conc. in soil, k - degradation rate, t - incubation period mean of 3 replicates standard deviation

Fig. 5

Abundance of the functional gene tfdA in soil in relation to the abundance of 16S rDNA in soil

Conclusions
The addition of maize litter stimulates the degradation of MCPA, but not of PHE. Stimulation of MCPA degradation at high amendment of the pesticide was accompanied by high abundance of bacteria carrying the specific tfdA genes. Fungi benefit more from the addition of maize litter than bacteria. Most likely they substantially contribute to the microbial degradation of MCPA via cometabolism. In conclusion, MCPA degradation of the Luvisol is sensitive to positive priming, whereas priming effects do not seem to be important for PHE degradation.

Special thanks go to Sabine Rudolph for PLFA analyses and DNA extractions as well as to Thomas Wendel and Renate Seelig from the Center for Applied Geoscience (University of Tbingen) for assistance with PHE GC/MS measurements.
Abb. 4 Concentration of selected PLFAs after 7, 21 or 42 days incubation, mean of 3 replicates standard deviation