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Article“Freeze-thaw cycles and biodegradable microplastics alter the microbial degradation of atrazine in mollisols”（new）
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Scientists found that freezing and thawing cycles, common in cold farmland regions, change how soil bacteria break down atrazine, a widely used weed killer. This matters because slower or altered breakdown could mean this chemical lingers longer in soil and potentially in water supplies, which is worth monitoring as our climate shifts.
This thesis is based on a systematic study on the impact of freeze-thaw cycles (FTCs) on the microbial degradation of the herbicide atrazine in black soil. The study used typical black soil from Northeast China (collected from Hailun, Heilongjiang Province) as the test soil. Four different frequency and melting temperature freeze-thaw cycle patterns were set to simulate the seasonal freeze-thaw process under natural conditions. Through indoor microcosm cultivation experiments, the degradation dynamics and changes in bioavailability of atrazine were measured. Additionally, high-throughput sequencing and metagenomics techniques were employed to analyze the structure of the soil microbial community, the characteristics of co-occurrence networks, and the response patterns of functional genes.
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Freeze-thaw cycles and biodegradable microplastics alter the microbial degradation of atrazine in mollisols
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Researchers investigated the combined effects of freeze-thaw cycles (FTCs) and biodegradable PBAT microplastics on microbial degradation of atrazine in Mollisols, finding that FTCs inhibited atrazine biodegradation by an average of 33.69% while microplastics had a much smaller effect of 4.99%. Thawing temperature was identified as the primary driver of shifts in soil microbial community structure that underlie changes in atrazine degradation rates.
Polymer-specific transformation of microplastics under soil freeze–thaw versus UV aging: Multiscale insights into atrazine interaction mechanisms
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Long-term soil incubation experiments showed that different polymer types transform distinctively under real soil conditions, with some plastics fragmenting rapidly while others persist with minimal change. Polymer-specific fate data are essential for accurate risk assessment and regulatory decisions about plastic use in agriculture.
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Scientists studied how sunlight and repeated freezing-and-thawing (like what happens in cold climates) break down common plastic (polypropylene) into smaller pieces called nanoplastics. They found that sunlight alone caused plastic to break into more, smaller nanoplastic particles over time, while freezing and thawing actually had the opposite effect, producing fewer but larger particles. This matters because it shows that how plastic breaks down—and how tiny the resulting particles get—depends heavily on climate conditions, which affects how much of these particles might end up in our water, soil, and eventually our bodies.
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Freeze-thaw cycles (the natural freezing and thawing soil goes through in cold seasons) roughen the surface of microplastics and make them better at soaking up antibiotics from soil, like a sponge with more nooks and crannies to trap chemicals. This matters because it means microplastics in cold-climate farmland could become more effective carriers of antibiotic pollutants, potentially spreading them further through soil, water, and crops than previously thought, an overlooked risk as climate change alters freeze-thaw patterns.
Freeze-thaw aged polyethylene and polypropylene microplastics alter enzyme activity and microbial community composition in soil
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This study found that when polyethylene and polypropylene microplastics go through freeze-thaw cycles (as they would in cold-climate soils), their surfaces change in ways that alter soil enzyme activity and shift microbial communities. These findings matter because changes in soil microbes can affect nutrient cycling and crop health, with potential downstream effects on human food systems.
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