Effects of polyethylene microplastics on properties, enzyme activities, and the succession of microbial community in Mollisol: At the aggregate level

Guankai Qiu; Qirong Wang; Quanying Wang; Tianye Wang; Zhichao Kang; Ying Zeng; Xiutao Yang; Ningning Song; Shaoqing Zhang; Xuerong Han; Hongwen Yu

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2023.116976

Effects of polyethylene microplastics on properties, enzyme activities, and the succession of microbial community in Mollisol: At the aggregate level

Environ Res. 2023 Nov 15;237(Pt 2):116976. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.116976. Epub 2023 Aug 23.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, State Key Laboratory of Black Soils Conservation and Utilization, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130102, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
² Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, State Key Laboratory of Black Soils Conservation and Utilization, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130102, China.
³ Engineering Research Center of Chinese Ministry of Education for Edible and Medicinal Fungi, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun, 130118, China. Electronic address: hanxuerong@jlau.edu.cn.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, State Key Laboratory of Black Soils Conservation and Utilization, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130102, China. Electronic address: yuhw@iga.ac.cn.

PMID: 37625535
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.116976

Abstract

Soil, as a heterogeneous body, is composed of different-sized aggregates. There is limited data available on the potential role of microplastics (MPs) in microbial properties at the soil aggregate level. In this study, changes in microbial construction and diversity in farmland bulk soil and aggregates induced by polyethylene MPs (PE-MPs) were investigated at a dose of 0.5% (w/w) through 16s rDNA sequencing and enzyme activity measurements of different particle size aggregates in incubated soil. The presence of low-dose PE-MPs increased the proportion of >1 mm soil aggregates fraction, and decreased soil available nitrogen and available phosphorus in bulk soils. Furthermore, low-dose PE-MPs increased bacterial richness and diversity in 1-0.5 and < 0.25 mm fractions and decreased operational taxonomic unit, abundance-based coverage estimator, and Chao1 indices in bulk soil and >1 mm fractions. The levels of predicted functional genes taking part in the biodegradation and metabolism of exogenous substances also increased. At the phylum level, PE-MPs changed the proportion of Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria. The variations in soil aggregate properties were significantly correlated with the bacterial communities' composition and diversity. This study deepens our perception of the soil microenvironment, microbial community composition, and diversity in response to PE-MPs.

Keywords: Black soil; Enzyme activities; Microbial structures and diversity; Polyethylene microplastics; Soil aggregates.