Poster: Biology & Disease Mgmt: Integrated Pest Mgmt
405-P
A meta-analysis of efficacy of anaerobic soil disinfestation on soil borne pathogen suppression.
U. SHRESTHA (1), R. Auge (1), A. Saxton (2), D. Butler (1) (1) Department of Plant Sciences, (2) Department of animal sciences, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA.
Anaerobic soil disinfestation (ASD) is a widely applied pre-plant soil treatment practice to control soil borne pathogens under variable environmental conditions. A meta-analysis on multiple ASD studies (533 studies from 46 published/unpublished articles) on soil borne pathogens including bacterial, oomycete and fungal pathogens was conducted to determine the effect sizes and efficacy of ASD on pathogen control. We also examined various environmental conditions as moderator variables to explore the effectiveness of ASD against pathogens. Bacterial (Ralstonia) and oomycete (Pythium and Phytophthora) pathogens were highly suppressed by ASD treatment (80%-88%), whereas across fungal pathogens (Cylindrocarpon, Fusarium, Macrophomina, Rhizoctonia, Sclerotium, Verticillium) suppression ranged from 59%-86%, with the exception of Sclerotinia (15%). Among different host specific F. oxysporum (Fo) pathogens (237 studies), spinach and tomato wilt caused by Fo f. sp. spinaciae (87%) and Fo f. sp. lycopersici (76%) were significantly suppressed by ASD. Under most environmental conditions, suppression of pathogen inoculum due to ASD treatment ranged from 62%-94%, that included study types, soil temperature, soil types and incubation period. Our meta-analysis indicates that ASD is effective against a broad range of soil borne pathogens and optimization to environmental conditions and cropping systems is likely to improve treatment consistency.