ABSTRACT
This chapter presents few experimental examples that provide an imperfect view of the complex behavior of pesticide degrading populations in soil. Many aspects and many specific conditions should be investigated. The soil microflora can degrade most of the pesticides. The metabolic behavior of the pesticide degrading microflora influences greatly the persistence of the compound both in agronomic and natural environmental situations. The carbon sources can be the pesticide itself: in this case the term of "metabolism" is used simply to identify this "microbial strategy" of degradation. These two strategies of the pesticide degrading microflora are of great interest for the understanding of pesticide behavior. The metabolic and cometabolic behavior of the degrading microflora have both favorable and unfavorable consequences on pesticide use.
