Impact of plantomycin spray on soil algae of paddy fields in Maouda, Nagpur district, Maharashtra

Abstract

Several antibiotics are used to protect the crop plants from bacterial diseases by spraying it on them. Plantomycin and Paushamycin are the two antibiotics commonly used in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra state. These antibiotics create an impact on the soil micro flora when it falls on the soil surface during spraying. The soil micro flora performs conditioning of the soil for better crop production. In present study we observed the impact of Plantomycin on the soil algae of paddy fields in Maouda of Nagpur district, Maharashtra. Total 52 algal taxa could be indentified from the experiment field of which 31 belongs to Cyanophyta, 13 to Chlorophyta and 8 to Bacillariophyta. The different paddy field soil algal taxa show variable resistance to Plantomycin. The blue green algae show more resistance to the antibiotic than the green algae. Higher concentration of antibiotic used in this experiment gave 100% algicidal value in both Cyanophyta and Bacillariophyta, but Chlorophyta could not respond so, due to the two species of the genera, Chlorococcum. C. humicolo and C. vitiosum were highly resistant to antibiotic used. It may be due to their sheath or cell wall organization.