Nitrogen supply neutralizes the nanoplastic-plant interaction in a coastal wetland

Chunping Zhang; Yingchao Lin; Qing Xue; Xunqiang Mo; Mengxuan He; Jie Liu

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2024.118572

Nitrogen supply neutralizes the nanoplastic-plant interaction in a coastal wetland

Environ Res. 2024 Mar 2;251(Pt 1):118572. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.118572. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Chunping Zhang¹, Yingchao Lin², Qing Xue³, Xunqiang Mo³, Mengxuan He⁴, Jie Liu⁵

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, Center for Grassland Microbiome, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730020, China.
² Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, National & Local Joint Engineering Research Center on Biomass Resource Utilization, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300350, China.
³ School of Geographic and Environmental Science, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Environment, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, 300387, China.
⁴ School of Geographic and Environmental Science, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Water Resources and Environment, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin, 300387, China. Electronic address: hemengxuannku@126.com.
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Herbage Improvement and Grassland Agro-ecosystems, Center for Grassland Microbiome, College of Pastoral Agriculture Science and Technology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730020, China; Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, National & Local Joint Engineering Research Center on Biomass Resource Utilization, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300350, China. Electronic address: jieliu@lzu.edu.cn.

PMID: 38437902
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2024.118572

Abstract

The presence of nanoplastics posed a potential threat to coastal saline-alkaline wetlands where nitrogen (N) fertilizer is being implemented as an important ecological restoration measure. Notwithstanding, the effects of N inputs on plant community in polypropylene-nanoplastics (PP-NPs) coexistence environments are largely unknown. To address this, we investigated the effects of PP-NPs addition alone or combined N supply on community aboveground biomass, morphological traits, diversity, composition, niche differentiation, interspecific interactions, and assembly. Our results showed that the PP-NPs addition alone reduced community aboveground biomass and morphological traits. However, the addition of high concentration (0.5%) PP-NPs alone favored community α-diversity and reduced community stability, which could be weakened through combined N supply. Overall, the effect of PP-NPs addition alone on plant community composition was greater than that of combined N supply. We also demonstrated PP-NPs addition alone and combined N supply reduced the niche breadth of the plant community and affected the niche overlap of dominant species. In the assembly of plant communities, stochastic processes played a dominant role. We conclude that N fertilization can amend the terrestrial nanoplastics pollution, thus mitigating the effects of PP-NPs on the plant community.

Keywords: Diversity; Nanoplastics; Niche differentiation; Nitrogen supply; Phylogenetic conservatism; Plant community.