Abstract:
The environmental behavior of pesticides could be altered in saline-alkaline soils, which might pose a potential risk to crops. Research on regarding the risk assessment of pesticide application in saline-alkaline soils was still limited. In this study, the accumulation of atrazine and toxicity risk of atrazine in salt-tolerant
Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench under saline-alkaline stress using indoor pot experiments were explored. The results revealed that atrazine exhibited prolonged persistence by 38.33% to 105.94% in soil under saline-alkaline stress. Atrazine had no significant effect on sorghum plant height, root oxidative stress enzymes and detoxification enzymes in control soil. Under 0.2% neutral and alkaline salt stress, markers of oxidative stress such as reactive oxygen species (ROS) content increased by 37.91% and 28.67%, and malondialdehyde (MDA) increased by 5.26% and 40.27%, respectively. The increase of ROS and MDA content suggested that atrazine caused oxidative damage to sorghum under moderate saline-alkaline stress. Under 0.2% neutral salinity stress, application of atrazine decreased the activities of cytochrome P450 enzymes (CYP450) and glutathione
S-transferases (GSTs) in sorghum roots by 41.56% and 29.76%, respectively, indicating that saline-alkaline stress inhibited metabolic detoxification processes. This study provides a reference for the application risk of atrazine in saline-alkaline soil, focuses on the environmental risk of pesticides in actual agricultural production scenarios, and provides a theoretical basis for scientific and precise application of pesticides in saline-alkaline soils.