Soil respiration as an indicator of soil quality under agrochemical treatment in a semi-arid area of southern Mediterranean

Pesticides are chemicals whose use is primarily intended to protect crops against pests. Unfortunately, the excessive use of these phytosanitary products generates environmental risks. To fully comprehend the biohazard posed by these agrochemicals, it is crucial to reveal the biological reaction of soil to pesticides. The objective of this work was to study the impact of pesticides on soil respiration through microbial communities. The experimentation was carried out for 28 days under controlled conditions on two types of soils. The first was subjected to phytosanitary treatments (Mospilan), and the second does not receive phytosanitary treatments. Soil respiration was monitored for two sampling periods where the soil was sampled in autumn 2021 and spring 2022. C-CO2 released from the soil that never received a plant protection treatment is greater in fall and spring than C-CO2 released from the soil subjected to plant protection treatments. The results present the soils not treated with the pesticide as being those with the highest respiration values (a peak of 272.8 mg of CO2 kg of soil−1 1 h−1 is recorded on the 14th day in autumn and a peak of 941.6 8 mg of CO2 kg of soil−1 1 h−1 recorded on the 7th day for the soil sampled in the spring) and the soils treated with the pesticide as those with the lowest values (a maximum of 214.13 mg of CO2 kg of soil−1 1 h−1 is always recorded on day14 in autumn and 272.8 mg of CO2 kg of soil−1 1 h−1 is always recorded on day 7 in spring). Quantifying the fluxes of released C-CO2 allowed us to determine the negative impact of pesticides on the inhibition of microbial respiration. It is recommended to spread this study over several types of soil, considering several types of pesticides.