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Effects of Plastics in Soil-Plant System
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Effects of Plastics in Soil-Plant System

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant–Soil Interactions".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2022) | Viewed by 7422

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Gábor Feigl

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Guest Editor
Department of Plant Biology, University of Szeged, H6726 Szeged, Hungary
Interests: plant physiology; abiotic stress; heavy metals; microelement homeostasis; reactive oxygen species; reactive nitrogen species; nitric oxide; nitro-oxidative stress; protein tyrosine nitration; remediation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Etelka Kovács

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biotechnology, University of Szeged, H6726 Szeged, Hungary
Interests: filamentous fungi; mycorrhiza; soil bacteria; metagenome sequencing; cellulose degradation; mycoremediation
Prof. Dr. Enke Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Interests: plant–soil Interactions; plant-microbe interactions; carbon-nitrogen-water interactions; nutrient recycling; agricultural environmental science; drought

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to the pollution of the environment with plastics and the fate of already used, discarded plastics in the ecosystem. Plastics are a persistent and silent threat to the environment and are already considered a significant problem in aquatic environments, however, the presence and effects of plastic in soils and terrestrial ecosystems has been largely unexplored. As a possible solution, the use of biodegradable plastics is on the rise, but the effect of the substances formed during their degradation on plants and the soil is almost completely unknown. Healthy soil microbiomes are crucial for achieving e.g. high productivity in combination with crop quality in agriculture.

Results so far prove that the occurrence and accumulation of conventional, petroleum-based and biodegradable (micro) plastics in soil can influence plant growth and microbial communities to a different degree, thus it is very important to obtain more knowledge about the underlying mechanisms of these changes.

This Special Issue of Plants will gather and showcase articles focusing on the effect of different plastics on plants and the plant-soil system.

Dr. Gábor Feigl
Dr. Etelka Kovács
Prof. Dr. Enke Liu 
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • plastic pollution
  • microplastics
  • biodegradable plastic
  • degradation product
  • phytotoxicity
  • ecotoxicology
  • soil-plant system
  • rhizosphere microbiome
  • microbiome
  • metagenome sequencing

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 1943 KiB  
Article
Response of the Fate of In-Season Fertilizer Nitrogen to Plastic Mulching in Rainfed Maize Croplands of the Loess Plateau
by Xueli Zhang, Bin Hu, Shangwen Wang, Wenyi Dong, Subramaniam Gopalakrishnan, Tao Jin and Enke Liu
Plants 2022, 11(18), 2343; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11182343 - 8 Sep 2022
Viewed by 1126
Abstract
As plastic mulching is widely used for maize production on Loess Plateau, study of the fate of fertilizer nitrogen (N) in rain-fed croplands is of great significance. Field experiments were conducted during 2015–2016 at a typical dry-land farm on the Loess Plateau, China. [...] Read more.
As plastic mulching is widely used for maize production on Loess Plateau, study of the fate of fertilizer nitrogen (N) in rain-fed croplands is of great significance. Field experiments were conducted during 2015–2016 at a typical dry-land farm on the Loess Plateau, China. The stable isotope tracer technique was applied to analyze the effects of plastic mulching on the maize crop yield, N content in the grain, and mechanism of N uptake and utilization in maize plants with plastic mulch (PM) and without plastic mulch (CK) on the Loess Plateau. Maize yield, aboveground dry matter, grain N concentration, and N uptake in aboveground biomass for PM significantly increased, in addition to fertilizer nitrogen recovery and nitrogen production efficiency. Compared to CK, PM improved the total N uptake from the soil in the aboveground biomass by 16.39 and 27.75 kg ha−1 and fertilizer nitrogen recovery by 10.89 and 22.02 kg ha−1, respectively. Furthermore, PM increased in-season fertilizer N retention in the soil by 11.9–24.8 kg ha−1, and the uncountable fertilizer N decreased by approximately 33.8 kg ha−1 on average. In conclusion, PM simultaneously improved the maize yield and N utilization, which provides a scientific basis for nitrogen management in maize croplands. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects of Plastics in Soil-Plant System)
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14 pages, 2134 KiB  
Article
Effects of Plastic Film Mulching on Soil Enzyme Activities and Stoichiometry in Dryland Agroecosystems
by Meixia Liu, Xueqing Zhao, Md Elias Hossain, Shangwen Wang, Wenyi Dong, Subramaniam Gopalakrishnan and Enke Liu
Plants 2022, 11(13), 1748; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11131748 - 30 Jun 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1865
Abstract
Soil extracellular enzymes are pivotal for microbial nutrient cycling in the ecosystem. In order to study the effects of different nitrogen application rates under plastic film mulching on soil extracellular enzyme activities and stoichiometry, five nitrogen application levels (i.e., 0, 90, 150, 225 [...] Read more.
Soil extracellular enzymes are pivotal for microbial nutrient cycling in the ecosystem. In order to study the effects of different nitrogen application rates under plastic film mulching on soil extracellular enzyme activities and stoichiometry, five nitrogen application levels (i.e., 0, 90, 150, 225 and 300 kg·hm−2) were set based on two treatments: plastic film mulching (PM) and no film mulching (LD). We measured the soil extracellular enzyme activities (EEAs) and stoichiometry (EES) of four enzymes (i.e., β-1,4-glucosidase (βG), leucine aminopeptidase (LAP), β-1,4-N-acetylaminoglucosidase (NAG) and alkaline phosphatase (AP)) involved in the C, N and P cycles of soil microorganisms in surface soil at five maize growth stages (seedling stage, jointing stage, trumpet stage, grout stage and harvest stage). The results showed that there were significant differences in soil EEA at different maize growth stages. The soil nutrient content and soil EEA were significantly improved under PM, and the stoichiometric ratio of extracellular enzymes (EC:N:P) was closer to 1:1:1, which indicated that PM was beneficial to the balance of soil nutrients and the activity of microorganisms. At each stage, with the increase in nitrogen application levels, the soil EEA showed a trend of increasing first and then decreasing (or remained unchanged), and both LD and PM treatments reached their highest activity at the 225 kg·hm−2 nitrogen application rate. When the nitrogen application level was less than 225 kg·hm−2, the soil enzyme activity was mainly limited by the N nutrient, and when the nitrogen application level reached 300 kg·hm−2, it was mainly limited by the P nutrient. RDA and correlation analysis showed that the soil C:P, C:N, N:P and pH had significant effects on soil βG, NAG + LAP and AP activities as well as EC:N, EC:P and EN:P. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects of Plastics in Soil-Plant System)
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15 pages, 2334 KiB  
Article
Plastic Film Mulching Improved Maize Yield, Water Use Efficiency, and N Use Efficiency under Dryland Farming System in Northeast China
by Md Elias Hossain, Zhe Zhang, Wenyi Dong, Shangwen Wang, Meixia Liu, Enke Liu and Xurong Mei
Plants 2022, 11(13), 1710; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11131710 - 28 Jun 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2151
Abstract
This 2-year field study analyzed plastic film mulching (PFM) effects on nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), and soil N pools under rainfed dryland conditions. Compared to no-mulching (NM, control), maize yields under PFM were increased by 36.3% (2515.7 kg ha−1) and 23.9% [...] Read more.
This 2-year field study analyzed plastic film mulching (PFM) effects on nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), and soil N pools under rainfed dryland conditions. Compared to no-mulching (NM, control), maize yields under PFM were increased by 36.3% (2515.7 kg ha−1) and 23.9% (1656.1 kg ha−1) in the 2020 and 2021 growing seasons, respectively. The PFM improved (p < 0.01) the water use efficiency (WUE) of maize by 39.6% and 33.8% in the 2020 and 2021 growing seasons, respectively. The 2-year average NUE of maize under the PFM was 40.1, which was 30.1% greater than the NM. The average soil total N, particulate organic N, and microbial biomass N contents under the PFM soil profile were increased by 22.3%, 51.9%, and 35%, respectively, over the two growing seasons. The residual 15N content (%TN) in soil total N pool was significantly higher (p < 0.05) under the PFM treatment. Our results suggest that PFM could increase maize productivity and sustainability of rainfed dryland faming systems by improving WUE, NUE, and soil N pools. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects of Plastics in Soil-Plant System)
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18 pages, 3322 KiB  
Article
Dry Matter Accumulation in Maize in Response to Film Mulching and Plant Density in Northeast China
by Zhenchuang Zhu, Shmulik P. Friedman, Zhijun Chen, Junlin Zheng and Shijun Sun
Plants 2022, 11(11), 1411; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11111411 - 26 May 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1311
Abstract
Film mulching in combination with high plant density (PD) is a common agronomic technique in rainfed maize (Zea mays L.) production. However, the effects of combining colored plastic film mulching and PD on dry matter accumulation (DMA) dynamics and yield of spring [...] Read more.
Film mulching in combination with high plant density (PD) is a common agronomic technique in rainfed maize (Zea mays L.) production. However, the effects of combining colored plastic film mulching and PD on dry matter accumulation (DMA) dynamics and yield of spring maize have not been thoroughly elucidated to date. Thus, a 2-year field experiment was conducted with three mulching treatments (no mulching (M0), transparent plastic film mulching (M1), and black plastic film mulching (M2)) and five plant densities (60,000 (D1), 67,500 (D2), 75,000 (D3), 82,500 (D4), and 90,000 plants ha−1 (D5)). A logistic equation was used to simulate the DMA process of spring maize by taking the effective accumulated air temperature compensated by effective accumulated soil temperature as the independent variable. The results showed that compared with M0 treatment, the growth period of M1 and M2 treatments was preceded by 10 and 4 days in 2016, and 10 and 7 days in 2017, respectively. The corrected logistic equation performed well in the characterization of maize DMA process with its characteristic parameter (final DMA, a; maximum growth rate of DMA, GRmax; effective accumulated temperature under maximum growth rate of DMA, xinf; effective accumulated temperature when maize stops growing, xmax; effective accumulated temperature when maize enters the fast-growing period, x1). Plastic film color mainly affected DMA by influencing xinf. PD mainly affected DMA by affecting GRmax and x1. During the first slow growing period, the DMA of M1 treatment was the largest among the three mulching treatments, however, during the fast growing period, the DMA of M2 treatment accelerated and exceeded that of M1 treatment, resulting in the largest final DMA(a) and yield. When the PD was increased from D1 to D4, the maximum growth rate (GRmax) continued to increase, and the effective accumulated temperature when maize enters the fast growing period (x1) continued to decrease, which substantially increased the final DMA(a) and yield. The application of M2D4 treatment can harmonize the relevant factors to improve the DMA and yield of spring maize in rainfed regions of Northeast China. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effects of Plastics in Soil-Plant System)
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