Abstract

The effects of repeated atrazine application (40 mg a.i. kg(-1)) on its degradation, microbial communities and enzyme activities were studied in a peat based biomixture composed by straw, soil and peat in the volumetric proportions of 2:1:1 that can be used in on-farm biopurification system. Atrazine removal efficiency was high (96%, 78% and 96%) after each atrazine application and did not show a lag phase. Microbial enzyme activities were reduced significantly with atrazine application but rapidly recovered. Microbial diversity obtained by BiologEcoplate (TM) was similar after the first and second atrazine application. However, an inhibitory effect was observed after the third application. After each atrazine application, culturable fungi were reduced, but rapidly recovered without significant changes in culturable bacteria and actinomycetes compared to the control. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) patterns demonstrated that microbial community structure remained relatively stable in time when compared to the controls. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that after successive ATZ applications, the peat based biomixture had a good degradation capacity. Moreover, microbiological assays demonstrated the robustness of the peat based biomixture from a microbiological point of view to support pesticide degradation. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.