Combined ozonation and solarization for the removal of pesticides from soil: Effects on soil microbial communities

A novel technology of solarization and phytoremediation enhanced with biosurfactant for the sustainable treatment of PAH-contaminated soil

“…This finding on the impact of solarization on a plant is consistent with a vast body of literature on improved plant growth, yield and quality and has been attributed to soil-borne control, soil structure improvement, increase availability of N and other vital plant nutrients in addition to the greenhouse effect (Emoghene & Futughe, 2011;Al-Shammary et al, 2016;Díaz-López et al, 2021). Although correlations between performance in agronomy and phytoremediation potential may not be fully determined, C. odorata drastically reduced PAH mixtures significantly (p ≤ 0.01) with 7.28 and 8.29 mg kg −1 compared to their unvegetated counterparts with 43.85 and 60.31 mg kg −1 with and without biosurfactant amendment, respectively (Fig.…”

“…According to some studies (Mahmoud, 1996 ; Patel & Patel, 1997 ; Itoh et al, 2000 ; Barbour et al, 2002 ; Sharma et al, 2002 ), soil solarization generally results in a decrease in the total bacterial population of the soil, whereas other studies recorded a decrease in the fungal population of the soil without any effects on the bacterial population (Coates-Beckford et al, 1997 ; Shukla et al, 2000 ). However, several studies (Kaewruang et al, 1989 a; Khair & Bakir, 1995 ; Khaleeque et al, 1999 ; Di Mola et al, 2021 ; Dáz-López et al, 2021 ) revealed higher total bacterial and actinomycetes population on solarized soil. This study showed that the recolonization of the rhizosphere by advantageous microorganisms shortly after the completion of a solarization treatment was the cause of the rise in total heterotrophic rhizosphere microorganisms in solarized treatments as observed by Chen et al ( 1991 ) and Di Mola et al ( 2021 ).…”

“…The significant increase in urease activity as observed in this study agrees with a report by Das and Varma (2011) that urease activity typically increases with temperature suggesting that higher temperatures enhance the urease enzyme's activity coefficient. According to Díaz-López et al (2021), combined ozonation and solarization had a negative impact on both enzymatic activities and soil microbial population in pesticides soil, due to the biocidal character of ozone; but several pesticides-degrading microorganisms showed a relative increase. However, the increase of soil/rhizosphere heterotrophic microbes and corresponding dehydrogenase and urease activities in this study, suggest the compatibility of solarization and phytoremediation.…”

“…Numerous reports have shown how biosurfactants can increase the availability of hydrocarbon pollutants and the ensuing biodegradation (Cheng et al, 2018 ; Liang et al, 2017 ; Liao et al, 2015 ; Shah et al, 2016 ). Soil solarization is beneficial to environmental sustainability as it leaves no toxic residues in the environment while inducing complex physical, chemical and biological changes which include soil structure improvement, increase in mineral nutrient availability and soluble organic matter that impacts positively on plant growth and yields, microflora and microfauna population in the soil with high influence on enzyme systems (Chen et al, 2000 ; Emoghene & Futughe, 2011 ; Gamliel & Katan, 2012 ; Al-Shammary et al, 2016 ; Díaz-López et al, 2021 ). Although enhanced rhizoremediation with solarization has been investigated on crude oil-contaminated swamp soil with over 67% total petroleum hydrocarbon reduction (Ubogu et al, 2019 ), the application of soil solarization combined with phytoremediation to treat contaminated land remains under-researched.…”

Cultivation of irrigated tomatoes with ozonised water under a Mediterranean climate in Algeria

“…In agriculture, ozone has been used for crop protection against pests that cause bacterial plant wilt and reduce yields, thus causing significant economic losses, it has also been used for foliar treatment, for the decomposition of pesticide residues in soils and to improve the microbiological quality of irrigation water (Díaz-López et al, 2021;Guo et al, 2019;Landa Fernández et al, 2019;Mitsugi et al, 2017). Indeed, ozone (O 3 ) is an unstable triatomic allotrope of oxygen, its half-life in water at room temperature is about 20 minutes, it is characterized by a high oxidation potential (2.07 volts) higher than that of chlorine (1.36 volts) (Holah et al, 2016).…”