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Effects of LDPE and PBAT plastics on soil organic carbon and carbon-enzymes: A mesocosm experiment under field conditions
Environmental Pollution2024
8 citations
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Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count.
Score: 45
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0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.
Researchers conducted a mesocosm field experiment to assess how LDPE and PBAT plastic residues in soil affect soil organic carbon and carbon-enzyme activities across different plant growth stages. Both plastic types altered soil carbon dynamics and enzyme activity in time-dependent patterns, with PBAT (a biodegradable plastic) showing distinct effects from conventional LDPE, particularly during active plant growth stages.
Although the effects of plastic residues on soil organic carbon (SOC) have been studied, variations in SOC and soil carbon-enzyme activities at different plant growth stages have been largely overlooked. There remains a knowledge gap on how various varieties of plastics affect SOC and carbon-enzyme activity dynamics during the different growing stages of plants. In this study, we conducted a mesocosm experiment under field conditions using low-density polyethylene and poly (butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) debris (LDPE-D and PBAT-D, 500-2000 μm (pieces), 0%, 0.05%, 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.5%, 1%, 2%), and low-density polyethylene microplastics (LDPE-M, 500-1000 μm (powder), 0%, 0.05%, 0.1%, 0.5%) to investigate SOC and C-enzyme activities (β-xylosidase, cellobiohydrolase, β-glucosidase) at the sowing, seedling, flowering and harvesting stages of soybean (Glycine Max). The results showed that SOC in the LDPE-D treatments significantly increased from the flowering to harvesting stage, by 12.69%-13.26% (p < 0.05), but significantly decreased in the 0.05% and 0.1% LDPE-M treatments from the sowing to seedling stage (p < 0.05). However, PBAT-D had no significant effect on SOC during the whole growing period. For C-enzyme activities, only LDPE-D treatments inhibited GH (17.22-38.56%), BG (46.7-66.53%) and CBH (13.19-23.16%), compared to treatment without plastic addition, from the flowering stage to harvesting stage. Meanwhile, C-enzyme activities and SOC responded nonmonotonically to plastic abundance and the impacts significantly varied among the growing stages, especially in treatments with PBAT-D (p < 0.05). These risks to soil organic carbon cycling are likely mediated by the effects of plastic contamination and degradation soil microbe. These effects are sensitive to plastic characteristics such as type, size, and shape, which, in turn, affect the biogeochemical and mechanical interactions involving plastic particles. Therefore, further research on the interactions between plastic degradation processes and the soil microbial community may provide better mechanistic understanding the effect of plastic contamination on soil organic carbon cycling.