Dataset Information

Effects of biodegradable plastic film mulching on soil microbial communities in two agroecosystems.

ABSTRACT: Plastic mulch films are used globally in crop production but incur considerable disposal and environmental pollution issues. Biodegradable plastic mulch films (BDMs), an alternative to polyethylene (PE)-based films, are designed to be tilled into the soil where they are expected to be mineralized to carbon dioxide, water and microbial biomass. However, insufficient research regarding the impacts of repeated soil incorporation of BDMs on soil microbial communities has partly contributed to limited adoption of BDMs. In this study, we evaluated the effects of BDM incorporation on soil microbial community structure and function over two years in two geographical locations: Knoxville, TN, and in Mount Vernon, WA, USA. Treatments included four plastic BDMs (three commercially available and one experimental film), a biodegradable cellulose paper mulch, a non-biodegradable PE mulch and a no mulch plot. Bacterial community structure determined using 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing revealed significant differences by location and season. Differences in bacterial communities by mulch treatment were not significant for any season in either location, except for Fall 2015 in WA where differences were observed between BDMs and no-mulch plots. Extracellular enzyme assays were used to characterize communities functionally, revealing significant differences by location and sampling season in both TN and WA but minimal differences between BDMs and PE treatments. Overall, BDMs had comparable influences on soil microbial communities to PE mulch films.

SUBMITTER: Bandopadhyay S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7179572 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Effects of biodegradable plastic film mulching on soil microbial communities in two agroecosystems.

Bandopadhyay Sreejata S Sintim Henry Y HY DeBruyn Jennifer M JM

PeerJ 20200420

Plastic mulch films are used globally in crop production but incur considerable disposal and environmental pollution issues. Biodegradable plastic mulch films (BDMs), an alternative to polyethylene (PE)-based films, are designed to be tilled into the soil where they are expected to be mineralized to carbon dioxide, water and microbial biomass. However, insufficient research regarding the impacts of repeated soil incorporation of BDMs on soil microbial communities has partly contributed to limite ...[more]

PMID: 32341903

Similar Datasets

Project description:Platostoma palustre is an annual herb and an important medicinal and edible plant in southern China. Plastic-film mulching is an effective agronomic practice in the cultivation system of P. palustre, of which black-film mulching is the most common. However, fewer researches have been focused on the use of other colors of plastic films in P. palustre cultivation. In this study, different colors (white, black, red, and green) of plastic film were adopted, and the effects of different colors of plastic film mulching on the soil temperature, yield, and metabolites of P. palustre were investigated. The results showed that the fresh weight of a single plant of the green film treatment was significantly higher than that of the white film treatment (n = top 28). Based on the results of three temperature measurements, the soil temperature was almost the highest in the red film treatment and lowest in the white film treatment. The metabolomic analysis revealed that a total of 103 differential metabolites were identified. Among these, the gluconic acid, deoxyribose, and N-Acetylmannosamine in the red film treatment presented the highest abundance compared with the other treatments, meanwhile, the abundances of the five monosaccharides in the red film treatment were significantly higher than those of the green film treatment. Moreover, the sucrose, trehalose, and D-(+)-trehalose in the green film treatment exhibited the highest abundance, and the abundances of eight different amino acids in the red film treatment were almost the lowest while those in the black film treatment were almost the highest. Further analysis of the membership function values indicated that the black and red film treatments might be more suitable for the cultivation and quality production of P. palustre in comparison with the other two treatments. This study will provide a theoretical basis for improving the efficient cultivation technology of P. palustre and forming a theoretical system of P. palustre film mulching cultivation.

Project description:Despite glyphosate's wide use for weed control in agriculture, questions remain about the herbicide's effect on soil microbial communities. The existing scientific literature contains conflicting results, from no observable effect of glyphosate to the enrichment of agricultural pathogens such as Fusarium spp. We conducted a comprehensive field-based study to compare the microbial communities on the roots of plants that received a foliar application of glyphosate to adjacent plants that did not. The 2-year study was conducted in Beltsville, MD, and Stoneville, MS, with corn and soybean crops grown in a variety of organic and conventional farming systems. By sequencing environmental metabarcode amplicons, the prokaryotic and fungal communities were described, along with chemical and physical properties of the soil. Sections of corn and soybean roots were plated to screen for the presence of plant pathogens. Geography, farming system, and season were significant factors determining the composition of fungal and prokaryotic communities. Plots treated with glyphosate did not differ from untreated plots in overall microbial community composition after controlling for other factors. We did not detect an effect of glyphosate treatment on the relative abundance of organisms such as Fusarium spp.IMPORTANCE Increasing the efficiency of food production systems while reducing negative environmental effects remains a key societal challenge to successfully meet the needs of a growing global population. The herbicide glyphosate has become a nearly ubiquitous component of agricultural production across the globe, enabling an increasing adoption of no-till agriculture. Despite this widespread use, there remains considerable debate on the consequences of glyphosate exposure. In this paper, we examine the effect of glyphosate on soil microbial communities associated with the roots of glyphosate-resistant crops. Using metabarcoding techniques, we evaluated prokaryotic and fungal communities from agricultural soil samples (n = 768). No effects of glyphosate were found on soil microbial communities associated with glyphosate-resistant corn and soybean varieties across diverse farming systems.

Project description:Plastic film mulching (PFM) affects the spatiotemporal distribution of soil moisture and temperature, which in turn affects cotton growth and the spatiotemporal distribution of canopy photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). Due to the spatial heterogeneity of soil moisture, temperature and limited monitoring methods, the issues such as relatively few sampling points and long sampling intervals in most existing studies prevent the accurate quantification of spatiotemporal changes in moisture and temperature along soil profile. To investigate the effects of PFM on spatiotemporal changes in soil moisture, temperature, and canopy PAR in cotton fields, two field trials of plastic film-mulched (M) and nonmulched (NM) cultivations were performed in 2018 and 2019. The grid method was used for the soil information continuous monitoring and multiple-time fixed-site canopy PAR monitoring during the duration of cotton growth. Two-year field trial data showed that, M cultivation increased soil moisture by approximately 13.6%-25% and increased temperature by 2-4 °C in the 0-50 cm soil layer before the first irrigation (June 20) and by 1-2 °C in the 70-110 cm soil layer, compared with NM cultivation. In addition, the temperature difference between the two treatments gradually decreased with the increase in irrigation and air temperature. The M treatment reached the peak PAR interception rate 10 days earlier than the NM treatment. In 2018 and 2019, the PAR peak value under the M treatment was 4.62% and 1.8% higher than that under the NM treatment, respectively, but the PAR interception rate was decreased rapidly in the late growth stage. Overall, PFM had an effect on soil moisture retention during the whole growth period and greatly increased the soil temperature before budding stage, thus promoted the early growth of cotton. Considering this, we suggest that the irrigation quota and frequency could be appropriately decreased in the case of plastic film mulching cultivation. For nonmulching cultivation, the irrigation quota and frequency should be increased, and it is necessary to take measures to improve the soil temperature before middle July.

Project description:BackgroundDifferent mulches have variable effects on soil physicochemical characteristics, bacterial and fungal communities and ecosystem functions. However, the information about soil microbial diversity, community structure and ecosystem function in tea plantation under different mulching patterns was limited. In this study, we investigated bacterial and fungal communities of tea plantation soils under polyethylene film and peanut hull mulching using high-throughput 16S rRNA and ITS rDNA gene Illumina sequencing.ResultsThe results showed that the dominant bacterial phyla were Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Acidobacteria and Chloroflexi, and the dominant fungal phyla were Ascomycota, Mortierellomycota and Basidiomycota in all samples, but different mulching patterns affected the distribution of microbial communities. At the phylum level, the relative abundance of Nitrospirae in peanut hull mulching soils (3.24%) was significantly higher than that in polyethylene film mulching soils (1.21%) in bacterial communities, and the relative abundances of Mortierellomycota and Basidiomycota in peanut hull mulching soils (33.72, 21.93%) was significantly higher than that in polyethylene film mulching soils (14.88, 6.53%) in fungal communities. Peanut hull mulching increased the diversity of fungal communities in 0-20 cm soils and the diversity of bacterial communities in 20-40 cm soils. At the microbial functional level, there was an enrichment of bacterial functional features, including amino acid transport and metabolism and energy production and conversion, and there was an enrichment of fungal functional features, including undefined saprotrophs, plant pathogens and soils aprotrophs.ConclusionsUnique distributions of bacterial and fungal communities were observed in soils under organic mulching. Thus, we believe that the organic mulching has a positive regulatory effect on the soil bacterial and fungal communities and ecosystem functions, and so, is more suitable for tea plantation.

Dataset Information

Effects of biodegradable plastic film mulching on soil microbial communities in two agroecosystems.

Publications

Effects of biodegradable plastic film mulching on soil microbial communities in two agroecosystems.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets