Project Details
Modeling of rhizosphere influences on interactions between chemical dynamics and effects of veterinary medicines in soil
Applicant
Professor Dr. Michael Matthies
Subject Area
Soil Sciences
Term
from 2005 to 2011
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5471428
The simulation models developed in the 1st phase integrate the chemical fate of the veterinary medicines sulfadiazine (SDZ) and difloxacin (DIF) in bulk soil and their subsequent effects on soil microorganisms and on soil functions after single-dose application with manure. In the 2nd project phase, this approach is extended to the rhizosphere, which represents the hotspot of microbial growth in soil and a continuous source of organic compounds released from active roots. The processes of fast and slow sorption, transformation and formation of bound residues of the antibiotics and their main metabolites are adapted to the rhizosphere. The developed effect models for soil functions, structural diversity, and resistance dynamics are extended by relevant plant-soil interactions in close collaboration with the experimental subprojects. The integrated fate-effect model is coupled with a transport model taking heterogeneities of the rhizosphere and plant uptake into account. Processes are parameterized for the two antibiotics SDZ and DIF in rhizosphere and bulk soil with data from the central mesocosm experiment and several planned satellite experiments. The resulting integrated fate-effect models will be evaluated with data from the field experiments. The model is further used to develop indicators such as structural resilience and functional redundancy for antibiotic induced effects, evaluate their applicability for risk assessment and to generate new hypotheses to corroborate the conclusions.
DFG Programme
Research Units
Participating Person
Dr. Jörg Klasmeier