الفهرس Only 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 173 |  |  |
| | | from | 173 | | |
Abstract
Wide spread use of pesticides like fungicides, herbicides and insecticides are applied in managing different groups of pests to maximize crop production. Although pesticides are credited with success in increasing food production and helping to protect man and animals against disease vectors, only a small percentage of the applied pesticides reach the target pests (less than 0.1 percent) Thus, more than 99 percent of applied pesticides usually reaches the soil, even if sprayed on the growing crop, and so may have an effect on non target organisms living in the soil.
Pesticides residues usually occur in the top 15 cm layer of soil where the Major biotic components of the rhizosphere include the microflora and the micro/mesofauna were found which, through their complex interactions, create an environment that may be either conductive or suppressive to plant growth, health and function. Anything that affects their activities might affect the function of soils not only in crop production, but also in the global carbon and nitrogen cycles and in the removal of a range of environmental pollutants. Therefore, it is important to study the possible effects of specific agriculture practices on soil non target organisms.
The focus of the research presented in this thesis is to
(1) Assess the effect of application of two chemical fungicides and two biocides commonly used in Egypt, on the distribution and population structure of soil oribatid mites.
(2) Explain the role of oribatid mites Scheloribates pallidulus and collembolan species, Hypogastrura inermis in suppression of soil borne pathogenic fungi, Rhizoctonia solani, which cause damping off disease of cotton seedlings in a laboratory experiment.