Increasing pesticide diversity impairs soil microbial functions
Pesticide application is essential for stabilizing agricultural production. However, the effects of increasing pesticide diversity on soil microbial functions remain unclear, particularly under varying nitrogen (N) fertilizer management practices. In this study, we investigated the stochasticity of soil microbes and multitrophic networks through amplicon sequencing, assessed soil community functions related to carbon (C), N, phosphorus (P), and sulfur (S) cycling, and characterized the dominant bacterial life history strategies via metagenomics along a gradient of increasing pesticide diversity under two N addition levels. Our findings show that higher pesticide diversity enriches the abundance of bacterial specialists and opportunists capable of degrading or resisting pesticides, reducing the proportion of bacterial generalists in the absence of N addition. These shifts can complicate multitrophic microbial networks. Under increased pesticide diversity, selective pressure may drive bacteria to streamline their average genome size to conserve energy while enhancing C, N, P, and S metabolic capacities, thus accelerating soil nutrient loss. In comparison, N addition was found to reduce bacterial niche differentiation at higher pesticide diversity, mitigating the impacts of network complexity and functional traits associated with pesticide diversity, ultimately alleviating soil nutrient loss. Our results reveal the contrasting impacts of pesticide diversity on microbial functions under different N input scenarios and emphasize that strategic N fertilizer management can mitigate the ecological effects of pesticide use in agricultural systems.
Authors
- Yanjie Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3948-1246)
- Matthias C. Rillig (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3541-7853)
- Bang Ni
- Dong Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0826-6423)
- Haifeng Qian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0807-9991)
- Da Lin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7056-0749)
- Qi Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3773-7981)
- Quan Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2651-1821)
- Yong‐Guan Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3861-8482)
- Lu Xiao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7155-6709)
- Tian-Lun Zhang
Institutions
- Kunming University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Shaoxing University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology (CN)
- Berlin Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research (DE)
- Institute of Urban Environment (CN)
- Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences (CN)
- Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Zhejiang University of Technology (CN)
- Freie Universität Berlin (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2025-01-09
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2419917122
- Citations
- 72
- Primary Topic
- Pesticide and Herbicide Environmental Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 36.27
Funders
- Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, India
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Zhejiang University
- Kunming University of Science and Technology
- Freie Universität Berlin
- Shaoxing University
- Zhejiang University of Technology
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
- State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology
- Youth Innovation Promotion Association
- Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences