DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15797288
title: Database of soil characteristics under specific pesticide management

description: Database of soil characteristics under specific pesticide management

Contributors: Markéta Mayerová and Veronika Řezáčová

Affiliation: Czech Agrifood Research Center, Drnovská 507/73, CZ-160 00 Prague 6, Czech Republic

Database of soil characteristics will contribute to the realization of the project´s goal to identify appropriate and inappropriate pesticides from the point of the view of their impact on the non-target organisms and soil characteristics.

Field I.

The field experiment was established in 2024 in the experimental area of the Czech Agrifood Research Center in Prague – Ruzyně (previously Crop Research Institute). The experiment took place at the site of the experiment that had been running there since 2013 and included 5 different herbicide treatments in 4 replications (Mayerová et al. 2018)

The new trial area was split into 20 randomised plots with 2 different herbicide treatments in 8 replications and control without herbicides in 4 replications. Herbicide treatments differed in the mode of action (Table 1)

Table 1. Summary of the herbicides and active ingredients used in the trial. Classification Group by Herbicide Resistance Action Committee (HRAC).






herbicide 



dose



formulation



active ingredient



content of a.i.



HRAC group



target weeds





Agritox 50 SL



1.5 l/ha



EC



MCPA



500 g/l



O



dicot





Glean 75 PX



15 g/ha



WG



chlorsulfuron



750 g/l



B



dicot + annual grasses 





 

The area of each plot was 100 m2 and the 10 by 10 m plots were separated from field boundaries and from each other by 2 m on all sides to eliminate interaction between plots. Herbicides were applied post emergency in spring (April 26, 2024) from the tillering crop stage to the beginning of stem elongation (BBCH 21–31) by the Agrio-Napa 12 sprayer. Winter wheat was grown in the experimental field in 2024. At the beginning of March, it was mineral fertilized with LAD (ammonium nitrate with dolomite - NH4NO3 + CaMg (CO3)2; 27 % N) at a dose 100 kg/ha. 

Mixed disturbed soil samples for microbiological and physicochemical analyses were taken from the 0-15cm upper soil layer in each replication before herbicide application (April 24, 2024), 14 days after herbicide application (May 9, 2024) and 7 weeks after herbicide application (June 14, 2024).  A total of 20 soil samples were collected at each sampling. The soil samples were subsequently dried and sieved through a 2 mm sieve, thus simultaneously homogenised. The following soil properties were determined: pH (H2O), electric conductivity, available P and K, concentration NH4 and NO3, soil organic carbon, and total organic nitrogen content. Available P and K were assessed according to the Mehlich III method (Mehlich, 1984) on an Agilant ICP-OES 5110 VDV instrument. NO3 and NH4 were determined using calcium chloride solution as extractant according to ISO 14255:1998 on automated chemistry analyser SKALAR. Soil organic carbon and soil organic matter content were determined by sulfochromic oxidation according to ISO 14235:1998. 

Field II

The field experiment was established in 2024 in the experimental area of the Czech Agrifood Research Center in Prague – Ruzyně (previously Crop Research Institute). The total area of the experiment is about 11 ha including the protective area around the entire experiment. The experimental area is divided into two halves, 120m wide and 300m long.  One half was treated on June 17, 2024, with insecticide Decis forte (active ingredient deltamethrin) at a dose 62.5ml/ha, the other half was without insecticide treatment. Both areas are further divided into other halves. One half was treated on May 15, 2024, with herbicide Agritox (active ingredient MCPA) at a dose 1.5l/ha, the other was treated with hoeing only. We thus obtained 4 strips 60m wide with following treatment combinations: (A) herbicide + insecticide; (B) hoeing + insecticide; (C) hoeing; (D) herbicide. Spring wheat was grown in the experimental field in 2024. It was fertilized with mineral nitrogen at a dose of 150 kg N/ha before sowing and with 39 kg N/ha (DAM 390 - ammonium nitrate with urea) in the tillering phenophase.

In the middle of each strip (i.e. treatment), 8 sampling sites were marked in a row, 20 m apart from each other. Mixed disturbed soil samples for microbiological and physicochemical analyses were taken from the 0-15cm upper soil layer at each sampling site 14 days after herbicide application and 14 days after insecticide application. A total of 32 soil samples were collected at each sampling. Further sample processing was the same as for Field I.

The database will be gradually supplemented in the following years. 

Funding: Development for this work is funded primarily by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic, project SS07020100: “The impact of plant protection products on non-target biodiversity: soil microorganisms, invertebrates and wild plants”, and the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic, institutional support MZE-RO0425.

The database was approved on September 2, 2025, by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic.

 Update for 2025

Both experiments were conducted in the same mode as in 2024 with a few changes listed below.

Field I.

Spring barley was cultivated here. Herbicides were applied 19.5.2025. Tribenuron methyl was used instead of chlorsulfuron at a dose 18.75 g/ha, however both herbicides to the group with the same mechanism of action (HRAC group 2B; sulfonylureas).  

Unlike in 2025, mixed disturbed soil samples were taken only once, 14 days after herbicide application (June 3, 2025). 

Field II.

Winter triticale was cultivated here. Herbicide was applied 24.2.2025 and insecticide was applied 3.6. 2025. Soil samples were taken 14 days after herbicide application (May 6, 2025) and 14 days after insecticide application (June 17, 2025).

References:

Mayerová M., Mikulka J., Soukup J. (2018): Effects of selective herbicide treatment on weed community in cereal crop rotation. Plant Soil Environ., 64: 413–420. https://doi.org/10.17221/289/2018-PSE

 Mehlich A. (1984): Mehlich 3 Soil Test Extractant. A Modification of the Mehlich 2 Extractant. Commun. Soil Sci. Plant Anal. 15, 1409-1416. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00103628409367568.