Treatment of Nematode in Soil Using Surface Barrier Discharge Ozone Generator

One of the practical usages of plasma in large-scaled agriculture is the indirect application of plasma by irradiating plasma derivative radicals. Since agricultural chemicals cause environmental problems, such as the generation of resistant bacteria and the increase of toxic residuals, we have proposed the extermination of soil worms and the acceleration of plant's growth by the ozone treatment of soil. Here, we propose soil treatment using ozone, generated by a surface barrier discharge, as both roles of pesticides and fertilizers. To investigate the effectiveness of gaseous ozone for the extermination of soil worms, this paper researched the influence of ozone on representative nematodes of C. elegans. Furthermore, to evaluate the practical effectiveness of the ozone treatment of natural nematodes living in agricultural soil, natural andosol was treated by ozone and the survival rate of nematodes was analyzed statistically using the Baermann funnel extraction.