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Biodegradable plastic exposure enhances microbial functional diversity while reducing taxonomic diversity across multi-kingdom soil microbiota in cherry tomato fields
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This study examined microplastic impacts on marine ecosystem services including fisheries production, coastal protection, and tourism, estimating economic costs of plastic contamination. The economic valuation of microplastic damages provides policymakers with quantitative evidence for cost-benefit analyses of plastic pollution prevention measures.
Plastic films are extensively utilized in agroecosystems, and their residues are accumulating in global soil at a worrying rate. Biodegradable films are employed as a substitute for polyethylene (PE) films due to their rapid degradation rate. Although the taxonomic diversity of soil microbiome in response to biodegradable films has been studied, its alterations in functional diversity remain unexplored. Here, we conduct a two-year field experiment in cherry tomato to address how PE and poly (butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) influences soil microbiota across multi-kingdom (bacteria, fungi, and protists) regarding its taxonomic and functional diversity. The results show that PBAT exposure reduces the taxonomic diversity while increasing functional diversity across multi-kingdom domains compared to PE exposure. We further find that the decreased taxonomic diversity under PBAT exposure reduces the complexity of microbial inter-kingdom and internal-kingdom networks. Conversely, PBAT exposure enhances microbial functional diversity (Shannon index) and average genome size, accompanied by elevated abundances of plastic-degrading genes as well as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulphur cycling functional genes. Overall, our study indicates that environmental filtration induced by PBAT exposure changes the microbial life adaptive strategies and leads to a decoupling between taxonomic diversity and functional diversity.
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Researchers compared how conventional and biodegradable plastic film mulches affect soil physicochemical properties and microbial communities in pepper cultivation, finding that mulch residue type significantly alters soil quality and microbial diversity with implications for sustainable agriculture.
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Researchers compared how biodegradable and conventional polyethylene mulch residues affect soil microbial communities at three temperatures, finding that white Mater-Bi biodegradable mulch degraded up to 89% at 30°C, while temperature above 45°C halted all degradation and differentially shaped bacterial and fungal diversity.
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Researchers compared the short-term effects of conventional polyethylene and biodegradable plastic mulch films on soil quality and ecological functions in both field and mesocosm experiments. While both films altered specific soil properties — polyethylene boosted carbon storage and biodegradable film doubled glucosidase enzyme activity — neither produced significant overall changes in soil multifunctionality after six months, suggesting short-term impacts may be modest.
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Using advanced DNA analysis of soil microbes, researchers found that different types of microplastics (polyethylene, polystyrene, and PLA bioplastic) each had distinct effects on soil microbial communities in agricultural land. Microplastics had a greater impact on microbes than cadmium, a toxic heavy metal, and high doses of PLA bioplastic notably increased genes linked to disease-causing organisms and nitrogen metabolism. This suggests that even biodegradable plastics can significantly alter soil health in farmland.
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