Response of microbial community to MP incorporation into soil

An estimated 258 million tons of plastic enter the soil annually. Joining persistent types of microplastic (MP), there will be an increasing demand for biodegradable plastics. There are still many unknowns about plastic pollution by either type, and one large gap concerns the fate and composition of soil dissolved organic matter (DOM) as a source of microbial nutrition. In this study, polyethylene (PE) microplastics (PE-MPs), photoaged to different degrees, and polylactic acid (PLA) microplastics (PLA-MPs) were added to agricultural soil at different levels and incubated for 100 days to address this knowledge gap.