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Environmental Sources
Marine & Wildlife
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Degradable film mulching increases soil carbon sequestration in major Chinese dryland agroecosystems
Nature Communications2025
15 citations
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Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count.
Score: 58
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Zihan Liu,
Zihan Liu,
Zihan Liu,
Zihan Liu,
Zihan Liu,
Zihan Liu,
Chenxu Zhao,
Kadambot H. M. Siddique,
Zihan Liu,
Yi Cheng
Zihan Liu,
Zihan Liu,
Yakov Kuzyakov,
Yakov Kuzyakov,
Yakov Kuzyakov,
Zihan Liu,
Nanhai Zhang,
Kadambot H. M. Siddique,
Zhaoyang Li,
Scott X. Chang,
Yakov Kuzyakov,
Yakov Kuzyakov,
Zhaoyang Li,
Jing Wang,
Minggang Xu,
Zhaoyang Li,
Scott X. Chang,
Scott X. Chang,
Kadambot H. M. Siddique,
Scott X. Chang,
Scott X. Chang,
Minggang Xu,
Minggang Xu,
Kadambot H. M. Siddique,
Zhikuan Jia,
Scott X. Chang,
Scott X. Chang,
Scott X. Chang,
Zhikuan Jia,
Kadambot H. M. Siddique,
Yves Uwiragiye,
Kadambot H. M. Siddique,
Kadambot H. M. Siddique,
Kadambot H. M. Siddique,
Nyumah Fallah,
Kadambot H. M. Siddique,
Yakov Kuzyakov,
Scott X. Chang,
Scott X. Chang,
Kadambot H. M. Siddique,
Kadambot H. M. Siddique,
Kadambot H. M. Siddique,
Thomas W. Crowther,
Yakov Kuzyakov,
Kadambot H. M. Siddique,
Scott X. Chang,
Yi Cheng
Yakov Kuzyakov,
Zihan Liu,
Yakov Kuzyakov,
Yakov Kuzyakov,
Yuanyuan Huang,
Scott X. Chang,
Kadambot H. M. Siddique,
Zucong Cai,
Yi Cheng
Yi Xu,
Yakov Kuzyakov,
Thomas W. Crowther,
Sheng Zhang,
Kadambot H. M. Siddique,
Zucong Cai,
Kadambot H. M. Siddique,
Yakov Kuzyakov,
Yakov Kuzyakov,
Kadambot H. M. Siddique,
Yakov Kuzyakov,
Zhikuan Jia,
Zhikuan Jia,
Zhikuan Jia,
Scott X. Chang,
Kadambot H. M. Siddique,
Zucong Cai,
Zucong Cai,
Scott X. Chang,
Scott X. Chang,
Minggang Xu,
Minggang Xu,
Christoph Müller,
Yi Cheng
Summary
Researchers compared biodegradable and conventional plastic film mulches used in farming and found that biodegradable films increased carbon storage in soil while traditional plastic mulch reduced it, suggesting that switching to biodegradable alternatives could help fight climate change while cutting plastic pollution.
Plastic film mulching (PM), which contributes to nearly half of the increased crop yields in dryland agroecosystems, exacerbates environmental burdens due to its non-degradable nature. Globally, there is a growing demand to replace non-degradable PM with degradable film mulching (DM), yet its impacts on soil organic carbon (SOC) in dryland agroecosystems remains unknown. Here, using multi-field studies and mesocosm experiments, we found that DM strongly increased but PM reduced SOC storage (0-1 m). This difference is likely attributable to the higher microbial C use efficiency in soil under DM, leading to increased microbial-derived C compared to PM. Under the high roading scenario for 2100, DM could reduce the decomposition of SOC (0-1 m) in China's drylands by 9.0 ± 1.0 Mg ha<sup>-1</sup> year<sup>-1</sup> (one standard error) compared with PM. Our findings highlight that DM is a promising alternative to PM for sequestrating SOC and alleviating C loss under climate change in dryland agroecosystems.