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Allelotoxicity of Soils: A Review

  • AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY AND SOIL FERTILITY
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Abstract

The review considers the basic terms characterizing the accumulation of allelotoxic compounds in soil and justifies the need to study soil allelotoxicity and approaches to reduce its negative impact on plants. As is shown, the main sources forming soil allelotoxicity are plant and microbial exudates and the substances released during the decomposition of plant residues. Different classes of allelotoxic substances and putative mechanisms underlying the transformation of allelotoxins in soil are considered as well as the capabilities and limitations of the available approaches to the assessment of soil allelotoxicity. The presence of allelotoxins is poorly detectable by chemical assays; correspondingly, bioassays are most likely to be the best method for this purpose. Analysis of the published data suggests the approaches to decrease the negative impact of soil allelotoxicity, which rely on a decrease in the concentration or activity of allelotoxins in soil or at the seed–soil interface utilizing fixation of allelotoxins on the applied sorbents or activation of the consumption of allelotoxins by microorganisms.

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Notes

  1. Autotolerant, that is, tolerant to itself and, consequently, not causing any soil fatigue; autointolerant, that is intolerant to itself, causes pronounced soil fatigue under the culture of itself; allotolerant, that is, tolerant to different allelopathic effects, is thus insensitive to the soil fatigue caused by another plant species; and allointolerant is intolerant to other species as neighbors and preferring to exist in its own ambience.

  2. As has been shown, several thousands of chemical compounds of phenol derivatives are biologically active [1, 11]. The same is true for flavonoids [68].

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Funding

The work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 22-14-00107 “Methodological Basis for Assessment of Soil Production Potential at the Federal, Regional, and Local Levels”).

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  1. Faculty of Soil Science, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991, Moscow, Russia

    I. V. Gorepekin, G. N. Fedotov & S. A. Shoba

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Correspondence to I. V. Gorepekin.

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Translated by G. Chirikova

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Gorepekin, I.V., Fedotov, G.N. & Shoba, S.A. Allelotoxicity of Soils: A Review. Eurasian Soil Sc. 55, 1804–1812 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1064229322700090

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