Effect of Diazinon, Chlorpyrifos and Imidacloprid Insecticides on some Biological Indices of Soil

The excessive use of pesticides in recent years and their continuation in the future may have harmful effects on the microbial population of the soil, as an indicator of soil health and one of the main components of the environment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of three mostly used insecticides (Diazinon, Chlorpyrifos and Imidacloprid) on ec-ophysiological and chemical indices of soil. The experiment was conducted as a factorial in a completely randomized design which included the pesticide factor at four levels (three insecticides plus control soil) and time factor at three levels (before, three months and six months after pesticide application). Concentrations of insecticides (0.1, 1 and 0.67) mg per kilogram of soil were used for imidacloprid, diazinon, and chlorpyrifos, respectively. Some biological and ec-ophysiological indices of the soil were measured at the beginning of the experiment, three and six months after the beginning of the experiment. The results showed that, the application effect of insecticides after three months affected the biological indices including dehydrogenase enzyme activity, metabolic quotient, basal respiration, substrate-induced respiration and also organic carbon decreased compared to the control -92.2%, -46.7%, -24.7%, 15.8% and -7.61%, respectively and urease enzymes activity, microbial biomass carbon, microbial biomass nitrogen, carbon to nitrogen ratio and soil microbial quotient increased compared to control 6.67%, 32.1%, 15.6%, 16.5% and 58.9. Also, the results showed that among the insecticides Chlorpyrifos and Diazinon had the highest and the least negative effect on the indices, respectively. The application of insecticides Diazinon, Chlorpyrifos and Imidacloprid at least in the short term, had a negative effect on soil ecophysiological indices and the most sensitive indices for determining the negative impact of insecticides on the soil microbial community were the dehydrogenase enzyme activity, metabolic quotient, substrate-induced respiration and basal respiration.