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Biodegradable microplastics aggravate greenhouse gas emissions from urban lake sediments more severely than conventional microplastics

Water Research 2024 39 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 65 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.

Bing‐Jie Ni Yanying He, Yanying He, Yanying He, Yanying He, Bing‐Jie Ni Yanying He, Yanying He, Yanying He, Yingrui Liu, Tingting Zhu, Yingrui Liu, Yiwen Liu, Yingrui Liu, Yindong Tong, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Yanying He, Yiming Li, Xianli Yang, Yingrui Liu, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Xianli Yang, Yingrui Liu, Yingrui Liu, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Yiwen Liu, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Yingrui Liu, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Yufen Wang, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Yufen Wang, Yiwen Liu, Haixiao Guo, Haixiao Guo, Yingrui Liu, Bing‐Jie Ni Haixiao Guo, Yufen Wang, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Yufen Wang, Yufen Wang, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Yindong Tong, Yindong Tong, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Yiwen Liu, Tingting Zhu, Yufen Wang, Yindong Tong, Tingting Zhu, Yiwen Liu, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Yindong Tong, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Yindong Tong, Yindong Tong, Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Bing‐Jie Ni Yufen Wang, Yufen Wang, Yiwen Liu, Yiwen Liu, Yiwen Liu, Bing‐Jie Ni

Summary

This study found that biodegradable microplastics caused urban lake sediments to release significantly more greenhouse gases (methane and carbon dioxide) than conventional non-biodegradable microplastics. The biodegradable plastics stimulated microbial activity and enzyme production in the sediment, suggesting that switching to biodegradable plastics may have unintended climate consequences if they end up in waterways.

Study Type Environmental

Freshwater ecosystems, such as urban lake sediments, have been identified as important sources of greenhouse gases (GHGs) to the atmosphere, as well as persistent sinks for ubiquitous microplastics due to the high population density and frequent anthropogenic activity. The potential impacts of microplastics on GHG production, however, remain underexplored. In this study, four types of common biodegradable microplastics (BMPs) versus four conventional non-biodegradable microplastics (NBMPs) were artificially exposed to urban lake sediments to investigate the responses of nitrous oxide (NO) and methane (CH) production, and make a comparison regarding how the biodegradability of microplastics affected GHG emissions. Importantly, results suggested that BMPs aggravated NO and CH production in urban lake sediments more severely than conventional NBMPs. The production rates of NO and CH increased by 48.78-71.88 % and 30.87-69.12 %, respectively, in BMPs groups, while those increased by only 0-25.69 % and 6.46-10.46 % with NBMPs exposure. Moreover, BMPs insignificantly affected nitrification but facilitated denitrification, while NBMPs inhibited both processes. BMPs not only created more oxygen-limited microenvironment, greatly promoting NO production via nitrifier denitrification pathway, but also provided dissolved organic carbon favoring heterotrophic denitrification, which was primarily supported by the enriched denitrifiers and functional genes. In contrast, NBMPs slightly upregulated nitrifier denitrification pathway to generate NO, and showed a toxic inhibition on both nitrifiers and denitrifiers. In addition, both BMPs and NBMPs promoted hydrogen-dependent methanogenic pathway but suppressed acetate-dependent pathway. The greater enhancement of CH production with BMPs exposure was attributed to the additional organic carbon substrates derived from BMPs and the stimulated microbial methane metabolism activities.

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