Effects of combination of plant and microorganism on degradation of simazine in soil

The degradative characteristics of simazine (SIM), microbial biomass carbon, plate counts of heterotrophic bacteria and most probably number (MPN) of SIM degraders in uninoculated non-rhizosphere soil, uninoculated rhizosphere soil, inoculated nonrhizosphere soil, and inoculated rhizosphere soil were measured. At the initial concentration of 20 mg SIM/kg soil, the half-lives of SIM in the four treated soils were measured to be 73.0, 52.9, 16.9, and 7.8 d, respectively, and corresponding kinetic data fitted first-order kinetics. The experimental results indicated that higher degradation rates of SIM were observed in rhizosphere soils, especially in inoculated rhizosphere soil. The degradative characteristics of SIM were closely related to microbial process. Vegetation could enhance the magnitude of rhizosphere microbial communities, microbial biomass content, and heterotrophic bacterial community, but did little to influence those community components responsible for SIM degradation. This suggested that rhizosphere soil inoculated with microorganisms-degrading target herbicides was a useful pathway to achieve rapid degradation of the herbicides in soil.