REvolutionizing the Assessment of the toxicity of pesticides on Soil microorganisms: from Single species tests to EcoSystem approacheS.
Pesticides constitute major environmental pollutants. In order to protect the environment and human health the European Commission (EC) has imposed a stringent regulatory scheme for pesticides (Regulation 1107/2009). The frame risk assessment of aquatic organisms and terrestrial macro-organisms has been thoroughly investigated, although the toxicity assessment of pesticides on soil microorganisms is lagging behind. In 2010 the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) identified soil microorganisms as an attribute to monitor in pesticides environmental risk assessment, due to their fundamental role in soil ecosystem functioning. In 2017 EFSA reinforced the need for establishing novel tests and procedures to assess pesticides toxicity on soil microorganisms. Previous research conducted by the University of Thessaly (UTH) and EFSA scientific opinion has pointed to AOM (Ammonia Oxidizing Microorganisms) including ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB), ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB), as well as AMF (Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi) as ideal microbial indicators of pesticides toxicity, due to their contribution in soil viability.
The project ReASSESS timely comes to fulfil this scientific and regulatory gap through an exclusive research program aiming to produce the benchmarking knowledge required to comprehensively assess the soil microbial toxicity of pesticides. In this quest novel tools, experimental procedures and risk assessment schemes will be developed in order to provide fundamental scientific knowledge and eventually reform the currently outdated pesticide risk assessment framework.
Aim
The main research queries will be addressed through 3 main research objectives:
- Tier I (conservative step): develop and standardize pioneering single organisms in vitro teststo assess the toxicity of pesticides on phylogenetically and ecophysiologically distinct soil AOM and AMF.
- Tier II & III (realistic assessment step): develop and implement advanced experimental single group organisms in lab and field tests to assess pesticides toxicity on natural soil assemblages of AOM and AMF.
- Higher Tier (ecosystem functioning): develop in vitro and natural soil assemblages including microorganisms from different trophic-levels (AOM, protists) to assess the ecosystem-level assessment of pesticides toxicity within the soil food-web (predator - prey).
Dimitrios G. Karpouzas (project role: Principal Investigator) is one of the leaders of Plant and Environmental Biotechnology (PEB) and Director of Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology (DBB) of the University of Thessaly (UTh), and Soil Microbial Ecology and pesticides environmental fate and biodegradation expert.
Evangelia Papadopoulou (project role: Host Institute PI) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Science (DES) of the University of Thessaly. Her research interest is on effects of agrochemicals and agricultural practices on the function and structure of soil microbial communities, with the main focus on the biochemistry, ecology and function on N cycling microbes.
Sotirios Vasileiadis (project role: Advisory Board Member) has recently become an Assistant Professor (in May 2021) at the group of Plant and Environmental Biotechnology (PEB), of the department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology (DBB), of the University of Thessaly (UTh), with expertise in Microbial Ecology, Meta-omics and associated bioinformatics.
Maria Papadatou (project role: Postdoctoral researcher) is a Postdoctoral researcher in DBB (Uth) in environmental and microbial biotechnology. Her research interests lie on the response of microbial fouling (biofouling) on antifouling applications, microbe-driven marine carbon cycling and ecosystem-level assessment of pesticides toxicity on soil microorganisms. In ReASSESS project she is working on the assessment of pesticides toxicity on microorganisms from different trophic-levels within the soil food-web (predator – prey).
Maria Kolovou (project role: PhD student) is a Ph.D student in DES (UTh) in environmental and microbial biotechnology. In ReASSESS project she is working on pesticides toxicity assessment on ammonia oxidizing microorganisms, under Assist. Prof E. Papapdopoulou supervision.
Christos Papadopoulos (project role: PhD Candidate) is a Ph.D student in DBB (UTh) in environmental and microbial biotechnology. In ReASSESS project he is working on pesticides toxicity assessment on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, under Prof D. Karpouzas supervision.
Kalliope K Papadopoulou (project role: Advisory Board member) is a Professor in the DBB (Uth). She is one of the leaders of PEB group. Her main research interests are in plant specialized metabolism (biosynthesis, production in heterologous systems, biological activities) and in plant-microbe interactions, with emphasis on endophytic fungi, symbiotic relationships and multi-partite interactions.
Prof. Stephane Declerck (UC Leuven, Belgium) is the head of the Mycology Laboratory in UCL, the host of GINCO, the largest world collection of AMF cultured in vitro. His group are global pioneers of the in vitro cultivation of AMF being able to cultivate about 20 phylogenetically and ecophysiological different AMF strains.
Graeme W Nicol (project role: Advisory Board member) is CNRS senior researcher working in Ecole Centrale de Lyone, France. His research interests are focused on soil microbiology, in particular understanding the contribution of archaea and bacteria to the soil nitrogen cycle through both cultivation and molecular approaches.
Prof Antonis Chatzinotas (UFZ, Germany) is a Professor in the University of Leipzig and leader of the group of Microbial Interaction Ecology in UFZ. He has strong expertise (i) in molecular microbial ecology in natural and engineered systems and (ii) in the use of assembled lab systems to study the role of biodiversity and microbial interactions within and across trophic levels.
Constantinos Ehaliotis is Professor at the Agricultural University of Athens (AUA) and Soil Microbial Ecology and soil fertility expert
Urania Menkissoglu-Spiroudi (project role: Advisory Board member) is the director of the pesticides laboratory of the Agricultural Sciences Faculty of the Aristotle University of Thassaloniki (AUTh) with extensive expertise in Analytical Agricultural Chemistry
15-18/11/2022 Ecotoxicomic at Montpellier, France
Maria Kolovou along with Prof. Dimitrios Karpouzas presented her work in the frame of the project ReAssess at the ECOTOXICOMIC 2022 conference related to Microbial Ecotoxicology, in Montpellier. It was an excellent opportunity to network and connect with fellow scientists, foster new collaborations, and build lasting friendships.
26-30/06/2023 BAGECO at Copenhagen, Denmark
At the 16th Symposium on Bacterial Genetics and Ecology (BAGECO 2023) in Copenhagen, Maria Kolovou presented her research on "Development of in vitro bioassays for assessing pesticides toxicity on soil nitrifying microorganisms". Additionally, Maria awarded with the third price in the category of BEST POSTER. Congratulations!! Wishing you even more success in the future.
13 November 2023 ECOTOXICOMICYR2023 webinar
Maria Kolovou, had the pleasure of presenting her latest research findings today at the ecotoxicomicYR-2023 webinar. Her research expands beyond the standard single-species testing approach, focusing on "The development and standardization of nitrifiers Synthetic Communities (SynComs) for assessing pesticide toxicity on microbial networks in nitrogen."
Please see her flash presentation.
Christos Papadopoulos unveiled the impact of pesticides on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in experiments of increasing complexity.
30 Nov – 02 Dec 2023, 10th Mikrobiokosmos Larissa,Greece
We are excited to share our research presented at the 10th International Mikrobiokosmos Conference.
PhD student Christos Papadopoulos focused his study into the toxicity mechanisms of pesticides on Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) in various experimental contitions.
Additionally, PhD student Maria Kolovou focused on assessing the impact of pesticides on microbial networks in nitrogen, using Ammonia Oxidizing Microbes (AOM) at both the individual species level and within synthetic communities, as valuable bioindicators.
Post-doctoral researcher Dr Maria Papadatou presented her work on Establishment of synthetic microbial communities across trophic levels to assess pesticide soil microbial toxicity in an ecosystem relevant in vitro system “
23-24 April, 2024 Latvia, 1st Annual Meeting of the Root-Benefit
We are excited to announce that Christos Papadopoulos along with Prof. Kalliope Papadopoulou, attended the 1st Annual Meeting of the Root-Benefit COST Action held in Riga, Latvia on April 23-24, 2024. During the event, Christos presented at poster session his recent research titled: “Assessment of the Toxicity of Pesticides on Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) in Testing Systems with Increasing Levels of Complexity”.
18-23 August, 2024, ISME-19 in Cape Town, South Africa
We are excited to announce that Christos Papadopoulos, one of our dedicated PhD students, attended the 19th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology (ISME-19) held in Cape Town, South Africa, from August 18-23, 2024.
During the symposium, Christos presented his study in a poster session titled:
“Assessment of the Toxicity of Pesticides on Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in Testing Systems of Variable Ecological Complexity.”
In addition to Christos, other members of our lab, including Prof. Dimitrios Karpouzas and Assistant Prof. Evangelia Papadopoulou, also attended the conference. They contributed to discussions and engaged in networking with fellow researchers in the field.
We are proud of our team’s representation at this prestigious international conference and their commitment to advancing knowledge in microbial ecology.
12-14 November, ECOTOXICOMIC 2024, Montpellier, France
Maria Kolovou along with Prof. Dimitrios Karpouzas presented her work in the frame of the project ReAssess at the ECOTOXICOMIC 2024 12-14 November conference related to Microbial Ecotoxicology, in Montpellier.
“Evaluating the potential impact of pesticides on soil microbial communities: Integrating in vitro single species tests of soil nitrifiers with in soil tests.”
22-26 June, 2025, ICoN9, Bremen, Germany
Members of ReAssess team actively participated in the 9th International Conference on Nitrification and Related Processes (ICoN9) in Bremen, Germany, presenting innovative research on microbial nitrification, pesticide effects, and biological nitrification inhibitors.
PhD candidate Maria Kolovou opened the Early Career Workshop with an oral presentation—and later a poster—on the use of synthetic microbial communities (SynComs) to better assess the ecotoxicity of pesticides on soil nitrifiers, capturing the complexity of microbial interactions.
22-24 Sep 2025, 10th Mikrobiokosmos & CEESME conferece Thessaloniki, Greece
22-24 Sep 2025, 10th Mikrobiokosmos & CEESME conferece Thessaloniki, Greece
We are excited to share our research presented at the joint International Mikrobiokosmos & CEESME conferece.
PhD student Christos Papadopoulos focused his study into the toxicity of fugicides fludioxonil and tebuconazole on natural assemblaged of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi colonizing Triticale plant .
Additionally, PhD student Maria Kolovou presented her work of using Species Sensitivity Distibutions to qualintify the toxicity of pesticides to soil ammonia oxidizing microbes, bacterial and fungal communities.
Postdoc researcher Dr Esteban Nieto presented his work on “Assesing dose depenting toxicity of pesticide on ciliate and flagellate protist.
Keep in touch through our site for Dissemination & Outreach updates!
- Kick-off meeting. 19/05/2022 Thursday 10:00-14:00 Greek local time
During the kick-off meeting of ReASSESS, there were presented and discussed the overall schedule and each specific research part of project (pesticides toxicity in AOM, AMF and soil food web (predator-prey)). The experimental design and more specifically the in vitro approaches were analyzed for adding final touches. All invited members contributed with several questions and answers on a wide range of scientific queries. We want to thank you all!. Looking forward to upcoming news, results and events.
Soil Sampling for "Reassess" Project WP4 : Collecting soil for our pot experiments, to assess the toxicity of selected pesticides in the soil communities of AOM and AMF.
28 November 2023 : WP4 - Pot experiment
We are pleased to announce the start of a pot-scale experiment to assess the impact of pesticides on key soil microbial communities, focusing on Ammonia Oxidizing Microbes (AOM) and Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF). This experiment is being conducted under greenhouse conditions, using two distinct soil types.
We'll keep you posted for upcoming events!!!