The effects of copper hydroxide, captan and trifloxystrobin fungicides on soil phosphomonoesterase and urease activity topical collection on remediation of site contamination

Abstract

There is increasing community awareness of the potential environmental risks posed by Cu-based fungicide use, which is placing increasing pressure on governments and industry to undertake risk minimisation action. However, if there is going to be a widespread move away from the use of Cu-based fungicides, logically there needs to be assurance that the alternatives pose a lower environmental risk. To that end, this study compared the effect of copper hydroxide, captan and trifloxystrobin on soil enzymatic (phosphomonoesterase and urease) activity. Compared to an untreated control, copper did not inhibit either enzyme activity, even at the highest dose used in the study (156 mg/kg). At their r..