Azole Antifungal Contaminants Disrupt Mycorrhizal Function and Risk Agricultural Sustainability

The sustainability of future food production is increasingly threatened by soildegradation, climate change, and rising synthetic fertilizer costs. Circular agriculture, whichpromotes waste reduction and resource reuse, offers a potential solution. However,integrating treated wastewater and biosolids into these systems introduces risks fromemerging contaminants, including pharmaceuticals, with unknown consequences for soilhealth and function. We examined the impacts of commonly detected azole antifungalcontaminants on arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, critical biotic components of healthy andfunctional soils, in lettuce (Lactuca sativa) and spring onion (Allium fistulosum). Our resultsshow antifungal exposure, at levels typically detected in agricultural soils, significantly impairAM function, reducing AM-mediated phosphorus (P) acquisition of plants. In spring onion,fungal diversity declined significantly, with a similar trend in lettuce. Our findings underscorethe need to mitigate inadvertent pharmaceutical contamination in agricultural systems andfor further research into the impacts of unintended contaminants on soil microbiomes.

未来粮食生产的可持续性正日益受到土壤退化、气候变化以及合成肥料成本上涨的威胁。倡导减少废物排放与资源循环利用的循环农业（Circular Agriculture），为解决上述问题提供了潜在路径。然而，将处理后废水与生物固体（biosolids）纳入此类农业系统时，会引入新兴污染物带来的风险，其中包括药物类污染物，其对土壤健康与功能的潜在影响尚不明确。本研究以生菜（*Lactuca sativa*）和大葱（*Allium fistulosum*）为研究对象，探究了农业土壤中常见检出浓度的唑类抗真菌污染物对丛枝菌根（AM）真菌的影响——丛枝菌根真菌是维持健康且功能完备土壤的关键生物组分。研究结果显示，农业土壤中常规检出浓度的抗真菌污染物暴露，会显著损害丛枝菌根真菌的功能，降低植物通过菌根途径获取的磷（P）量。其中，大葱组的土壤真菌多样性显著下降，生菜组也呈现出类似的变化趋势。本研究结果凸显了管控农业系统中无意引入的药物类污染的必要性，同时也呼吁开展更多针对非预期污染物对土壤微生物组影响的相关研究。