MARUM Research Academy

Formation and Impact of Reactive Oxygen Species in Changing Soil Environments

Soils play an important role in global and local ecosystem processes, such as carbon and nitrogen cycling, but are heavily threatened by pollution through pesticides. One chemical widely used as a pesticide is copper, a redox-active metal, which is commonly applied in agricultural areas as a fungicide. Copper is an essential element for all living organisms, but in higher concentrations it can be harmful to both terrestrial and aquatic organisms. Therefore, copper application in agriculture can have a high impact on non-target organisms and ecosystem functioning. One of the reasons for copper toxicity is that copper can facilitate the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can be harmful to all organisms in too high concentrations.

My project aims to understand how the copper-induced ROS formation is influenced by changing environmental conditions and if a higher ROS formation translates into stress to soil organisms in interaction with other environmental stressors. First, the abiotic ROS formation will be analysed in artificial solutions under different environmental conditions. Second, the resulting environmental conditions will be investigated in soil bioassays. Last, the gained knowledge will be tested on field soils.

Overall, the gained knowledge could be a first step into creating more knowledgeable management plans for copper-based pesticide output in agriculture, concerning the copper substance, timing and concentration of copper application.