Abstract
Soil enzymes are indicators of microbial activities in soil and are often considered as an indicator of soil health and fertility. They are very sensitive to the agricultural practices, pH of the soil, nutrients, inhibitors and weather conditions. To understand the effect of an insecticide, thiamethoxam, on different soil enzyme activities, the experiments were conducted at cotton experimental fields of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. The results here were presented to understand the impact of thiamethoxam on soil enzyme activities. Thiamethoxam was applied as seed treatment to control the pest. Soil from three localities, i.e. soil in which seed was treated with recommended dose at 2.1 g a.i. kg−1, soil in which seed was treated with four times recommended dose at 8.4 g a.i. kg−1 and from the control field, were tested for different enzyme activities. Phosphatase and dehydrogenase activities were high in control soil in comparison to control soil while no effect of this insecticide on urease activity. Thiamethoxam had inhibitory effects on dehydrogenase and phosphatase activities. Therefore, it can be attributed that agricultural practices, weather conditions and use of thiamethoxam might be responsible for the different level of enzyme activities in soil.
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The authors are thankful to the Professor and Head, Department of Entomology, PAU, Ludhiana, for providing the necessary research facilities.
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Gagan Jyot holds a M. Sc., Punjab Agricultural University.
Balwinder Singh holds a Ph. D., Punjab Agricultural University.
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Jyot, G., Mandal, K. & Singh, B. Effect of dehydrogenase, phosphatase and urease activity in cotton soil after applying thiamethoxam as seed treatment. Environ Monit Assess 187, 298 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-015-4432-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-015-4432-7