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The regulated effects of phosphorus addition on rhizosphere microecology under microplastic pollution: a comparison based on different plant types
Summary
A pot experiment found that polyethylene microplastics and phosphorus fertilizers interact in crop-specific ways, altering root growth and soil moisture differently in wheat versus maize. Understanding these interactions matters because microplastic contamination in farmland soils could undermine fertilizer strategies and threaten crop productivity.
Plastics form microplastics (MPs) through a series of decomposition. The MPs have emerged as a novel pollutant in agricultural soils, which can impact the soil environment and subsequently inhibit plant growth and development. Polyethylene microplastic are one of the main types of microplastics in agricultural soil. Phosphorus (P) addition can influence the microecology in the soil rhizosphere. This experiment explored the regulated effects of P addition on rhizosphere microecology under MP pollution on different plant-soil systems. This study conducted indoor pot experiments with different plant species to investigate the combined and distinct responses of plant root growth and soil environment to the addition of microplastic, phosphorus, and their joint addition. Compared with the CK, MP treatment alone significantly enhanced the root viability of wheat and maize (increasing by 41.58% and 47.37% respectively), but reduced the root biomass of wheat. The P addition weakened the enhancing effect of MP on root viability (decreasing by 29.56% in Maize and 16.20% in wheat). It is worth noting that MP and P have crop-specific effects on soil moisture content and electrical conductivity: MP reduced the soil moisture content and electrical conductivity of wheat but increases that of maize, while MP + P treatment reversed this trend. Bacterial community analysis indicated that MP significantly reduced the diversity of the rhizosphere microbiota in maize (with a decrease in the Shannon/Simpson index), while it remained stable in wheat. The phyla Actinomycetes has a higher sensitivity to MP in wheat. Functional prediction showed crop-specific metabolic recombination: MP upregulated carbohydrate metabolic pathways in maize (229), while shifted to amino acid metabolism in wheat. This study advanced our understanding of how MP and P fertilizers interacted within plant-soil systems. It not only elucidated varied impacts patterns of MP on different plant species and soil microbial communities, but also underscored the potential of P fertilization in alleviating MP effects.