Abstract:
In recent years, the rapid development of intensive livestock farming in China, driven by high demands for meat, eggs, and dairy, has positioned the country as the world’s largest producer. During breeding processes, disease prevention and control, estrus regulation through pharmaceuticals, and natural animal excretion have led to the release of antibiotics and estrogens into the environment via livestock and poultry manure. These contaminants can accumulate in the edible parts of crops grown in antibiotic and estrogen contaminated farmland soil, thereby increasing the risk of their transmission to humans through the food chain. There is an urgent need to explore integrated technologies that can simultaneously reduce both antibiotics and estrogens in soil by combining such approaches with existing agricultural practices. Optimizing parameters and improving these technologies are essential to achieve concurrent removal of both types of contaminants. To elucidate the impact of straw incorporation coupled with solarization on the attenuation of antibiotics and estrogens in vegetable soil, and to promote the resource utilization of agricultural waste, this study employed high-temperature solarization techniques by incorporating tomato straw and wheat straw, both with and without supplementary high-temperature decomposing microbial inoculants. The investigation systematically examined the effects of varying incorporation ratios of tomato straw to wheat straw on: (1) soil chemical properties; (2) concentrations of target antibiotics (tetracycline, oxytetracycline, chlortetracycline) and estrogens (estrone, 17
β-estradiol, estriol); (3) composition and structure shifts in bacterial communities. The primary objective was to identify the optimal straw incorporation ratio for maximizing the attenuation of soil antibiotics and estrogens via the integrated straw-solarization approach. The experiment included four treatments: CK (control, solarization without straw incorporation), LO (solarization with tomato and wheat straw incorporation at a 3:1 ratio), LB (solarization with tomato and wheat straw incorporation at a 3:1 ratio plus microbial agent), and HB (solarization with tomato and wheat straw incorporation at a 3:2 ratio plus microbial agent). The results suggested that the combined straw incorporation and solarization treatment significantly elevated soil pH while reducing total nitrogen content. The most pronounced effects were observed at a tomato straw to wheat straw ratio of 3:1. Concurrently, compared to CK, this optimal ratio (3:1) yielded superior attenuation efficiencies for both antibiotics and estrogens, achieving total reduction rates reaching 75.78% and 17.03%, respectively. In some cases, the residual levels were reduced below the detection limit. Microbial degradation was identified as the critical factor driving to the differences in the reduction of antibiotics and estrogens. Variations in microbial activity were primarily attributed to changes in the soil environment induced by different straw incorporation ratios and the addition of microbial agents, which subsequently affected microbial community structure, activity, and the secretion of degradation enzymes. Analysis of soil bacterial diversity and community composition further revealed that solarization with the 3:1 straw ratio significantly enhanced bacterial richness. This enhancement was characterized by increased relative abundance of the phylum Firmicutes and the genus
Bacillus, thereby altering overall community structure and amplifying the degradation capacity for antibiotics and estrogens. The findings of this study provide a theoretical foundation and empirical data to support: (1) optimization of solarization technology; (2) promotion of resource-oriented utilization of agricultural waste; (3) mitigation strategies for antibiotic and estrogen contamination in protected agricultural soils.