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Dissipation of penthiopyrad in polyethylene microplastics coexisting soils: Roles of soil properties and microbial communities
Summary
Researchers studied how polyethylene microplastics affect the breakdown of the fungicide penthiopyrad in soil and found that the plastics modified dissipation rates through adsorption and desorption but did not significantly alter the fungicide's ultimate persistence. Specific bacterial and fungal genera, including Sphingomonas and Trichocladium, played key roles in degrading the fungicide. The study highlights that soil microorganisms could serve as natural remediation agents for co-contamination by microplastics and pesticides.
Co-existence of fungicides and microplastics in soil may exacerbate the environmental pollution. This study investigated the effects of polyethylene microplastics on the fate of penthiopyrad and soil health. The results showed that the dissipation kinetics of penthiopyrad in soil were modified by the potential adsorption and desorption behavior of polyethylene microplastics, however, did not significantly alter the enantioselectivity and ultimate persistence of penthiopyrad in soil. Larger particle size and higher concentration induced more impacts. Different performance of soil acidity, available phosphorus, enzymatic activities were observed under PTP-PE co-existence over time. It was found that bacterial Sphingomonas and fungal Trichocladium, Humicola were the key dominant genera playing more important roles in penthiopyrad dissipation. The variations of pH, dehydrogenase activity, and available nitrogen demonstrated strong correlations with the genera. Our findings highlighted the potential microbial resources served as the remediation factor of polyethylene microplastics and penthiopyrad from the perspective of soil microenvironment, which provided the theoretical basis for the interactive effect mechanism of these two exogenous substances.