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Biodegradable and conventional microplastics differentially affected greenhouse gas emissions from a flooded paddy soil: Insight into metagenomic analysis
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Not all plastics behave the same way once they end up in the environment: this study found that "biodegradable" plastic (PLA) actually increased methane emissions from flooded rice fields by over 260%, while conventional plastics (PE, PET) suppressed methane but boosted nitrous oxide, another potent greenhouse gas. This matters because biodegradable plastics are often marketed as the eco-friendly choice, but this research shows they may worsen climate-warming gas emissions from farmland, at least in the short term, a tradeoff worth understanding as these plastics become more common in agriculture.
Paddy soils are important sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs), and microplastics (MPs) are increasingly widespread in paddies. However, the type-dependent effects of biodegradable and conventional MPs on methane (CH), carbon dioxide (CO), and nitrous oxide (NO) emissions remain unclear. Here, an incubation experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of polyethylene (PE), polyethylene terephthalate (PET), Polybutylene succinate (PBS), and polylactic acid (PLA) on GHG emissions and the involved mechanism was clarified. PLA significantly increased cumulative CH and CO emissions by 264% and 27.3%, respectively, whereas PE and PET inhibited CH and CO emissions. In contrast, PE significantly enhanced NO emissions by 93.1%, while PLA had no significant effect. Mechanistically, PLA increased dissolved organic carbon (DOC), soil pH, HCl-extractable Fe(II), and soluble/exchangeable Mn contents, but decreased soil redox potential (Eh) and sulfate content, creating favorable conditions for microbial anaerobic metabolism. PLA increased the relative abundances of methanogenic taxa and genes (fwdA, fdhA, acsC, cdhC, mttB, and mtbC), but decreased those associated with anaerobic methane oxidation (mcrA, mtrH, and mer), indicating greater CH-production potential. PLA also increased fermentation (ldh, pfl, ackA, adhE, and por), sulfate-reduction (sat, aprA, aprB, dsrA, and dsrB), and iron-reduction (feR) gene abundances, suggesting greater anaerobic carbon-transformation potential. PE and PET increased denitrifiers and related genes (narH, narI, nirK, and norB), indicating greater NO-production potential, whereas increased nosZ abundance under PLA treatment suggested greater NO-reduction potential. Overall, MPs differentially affected paddy GHG emissions in a type-dependent manner, and biodegradable PLA exacerbated short-term GHG emission risks from paddy soils.
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Discrepant responses of bacterial community and enzyme activities to conventional and biodegradable microplastics in paddy soil
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Researchers compared the soil effects of conventional polypropylene microplastics versus biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA) microplastics in rice paddy soil over 41 days. Both types altered soil chemistry and bacterial communities, but they had different effects on enzyme activity, with PLA causing distinct changes to carbon and nitrogen cycling. This matters because biodegradable plastics, often assumed to be safer, still release microplastics that affect soil health and potentially food crops.
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