Microbial Community Analysis of Dominant Degrading Bacteria for Remediation of Pesticide‐Contaminated Soil

ABSTRACT Neonicotinoid insecticides are one of the most used insecticides because of their wide application range and high insecticidal efficiency. Imidacloprid (IMI) and acetamiprid (AAP) are typical neonicotinoid insecticides, which are widely used in agriculture and have a long half‐life in soil, posing a threat to the ecosystem and human health. Compared with physical method and chemical method, biological method is a safe, efficient, inexpensive, and non‐secondary pollution degradation method, considered an effective way to manage insecticide environmental pollution. However, its effects on soil ecosystems are not fully understood. In this article, based on 16S rRNA high‐throughput sequencing and metagenomics, the remediation of insecticide‐contaminated soil by dominant degrading bacteria was studied. Remediation performance and microbial community response were examined. The results showed that the dominant bacteria were able to stabilize in the soil and synergy with indigenous microorganisms to degrade the insecticides. They also enhance the abundance and evenness of soil microorganisms, thereby mitigating the disruptive effects of insecticides on the microbial community structure. Specifically, the dominant bacteria (for IMI) significantly enhanced bacterial diversity, whereas the dominant fungi (for AAP) reduced fungal diversity but still effectively promoted pollutant degradation. These results provide valuable information for microbial remediation of soils contaminated with neonicotinoid insecticide.