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avatar for Mona Parizadeh

Mona Parizadeh

Student Speaker | Étudiant.e
The microbiota plays a key role in the regulation of agroecosystems and contributes to crop performance and soil fertility. In sustainable agriculture, it is crucial to understand the microbial community structures and their changes in response to disturbances. Widespread pesticide application may have had non-target impacts on these beneficial microorganisms. Neonicotinoids, a family of systemic insecticides, are among these pesticides being widely used to control early-season and foliar-feeding pests in recent decades. There are a few studies on the non-target impact of these pesticides on the soil microbiota. In this study, we characterized the effects of neonicotinoids on soil bacterial and nematode communities using 16S and 18S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. We found that host species, time, and neonicotinoid treatment significantly explain variation in soil nematode and bacterial compositions. Neonicotinoids had an impact on the taxonomic composition of soil microbiota, particularly on bacterial communities. While neonicotinoids favored certain bacterivores and parasitic nematodes, and also bacterial genera known to be neonicotinoid biodegraders, there was a decrease in some potentially beneficial bacteria in response to the pesticide application. Exploring the interactions between bacteria and nematodes may improve our understanding of non-target effects of pesticides and help us adapt agricultural practices to control these impacts.