Microplastic fiber and drought effects on plants and soil are only slightly modified by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

作     者：Anika Lehmann Eva FLeifheit Linshan Feng Joana Bergmann Anja Wulf Matthias C.Rillig Anika Lehmann;Eva F.Leifheit;Linshan Feng;Joana Bergmann;Anja Wulf;Matthias C.Rillig

作者机构：Freie Universität BerlinInstitut für Biologie14195 BerlinGermany Berlin-Brandenburg Institute of Advanced Biodiversity Research14195 BerlinGermany Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research(ZALF)15374 MünchebergGermany 

出 版 物：《Soil Ecology Letters》 (土壤生态学快报（英文）)

年 卷 期：2022年第4卷第1期

页      面：32-44页

学科分类：0710[理学-生物学] 0830[工学-环境科学与工程（可授工学、理学、农学学位）] 09[农学] 0818[工学-地质资源与地质工程] 0903[农学-农业资源与环境] 0901[农学-作物学] 0713[理学-生态学] 

基　　金：funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft 

主　　题：Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi Microplastic Soil aggregation Organic matter decomposition Drought Root traits 

摘      要：Microplastics are increasingly recognized as a factor of global change. By altering soil inherentproperties and processes, ripple-on effects on plants and their symbionts can be expected.Additionally, interactions with other factors of global change, such as drought, can influence theeffect of microplastics. We designed a greenhouse study to examine effects of polyester microfibers,arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi and drought on plant, microbial and soil responses. We found thatpolyester microfibers increased the aboveground biomass of Allium cepa under well-watered anddrought conditions, but under drought conditions the AM fungal-only treatment reached the highestbiomass. Colonization with AM fungi increased under microfiber contamination, however, plantbiomass did not increase when both AM fungi and fibers were present. The mean weight diameter ofsoil aggregates increased with AM fungal inoculation overall but decreased when the system wascontaminated with microfibers or drought stressed. Our study adds additional support to themounting evidence that microplastic fibers in soil can affect the plant–soil system by promoting plantgrowth, and favoring key root symbionts, AM fungi. Although soil aggregation is usually positivelyinfluenced by plant roots and AM fungi, and microplastic promotes both, our results show that plasticstill had a negative effect on soil aggregates. Even though there are concerns that microplastic mightinteract with other factors of global change, our study revealed no such effect for drought.