Soil biota modulate the effects of microplastics on biomass and diversity of plant communities

The use of biodegradable plastics has been proposed as an alternative to mitigate the pollution problem caused by traditional non-biodegradable plastics. However, the relative impacts of both types of microplastics on plant community productivity and diversity are not known. Moreover, it is unclear whether soil biota can differentially mediate the impacts of biodegradable and non-biodegradable microplastics on plant communities. In this study, we investigated the effects of biodegradable and non-biodegradable microplastics on plant community biomass production and diversity, and whether soil biota mediate these effects. We employed a fully crossed factorial design, growing six plant communities in the presence or absence of 10 individual microplastics, and live soil versus sterilized soil. We hypothesized that: 1) Biodegradable microplastics have a less negative effect on plant community biomass production and diversity compared to non-biodegradable microplastics. 2) Soil biota differen..., We conducted a greenhouse experiment with six plant communities (each consisting of five plant species) and assigned them to the  2 soil treatments (live soil vs. sterilized soil) × 11 microplastic treatments (five biodegradable microplastics, five non-biodegradable microplastics, and one no-microplastic control) combinations. Four replicates per treatment. All plant data are collected from this experiment. Additionally, we collected soil from a parallel long-term experiment in a northeast China grassland (Hulunbuir; 119°38'E, 50°20'N) running since 2020, where we are examining the effects of microplastic pollution on plant community diversity and productivity in a grassland. We randomly collected 0.5 g of soil from each sample to extract. The 100 soil samples [10 microplastic (no-microplastic, 5 biodegradable microplastics, 4 non-biodegradable microplastics) ×10 replicates] were immediately stored at -80 ℃ until DNA extraction., , # Soil biota modulate the effects of microplastics on biomass and diversity of plant communities

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fttdz092k](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fttdz092k)

## Description of the data and file structure

### Files and variables

#### File: plant\_community\_biomass.xls

**Description:** plant data

##### Variables

* group: A through F represent 6 plant communities
* soil: no = live soil, yes = sterilized soil
* plastic: 10 commonly used microplastics
* character: Microplastic properties
* site: random numbers
* Species 1-5: shoot biomass of each species (g)
* total: shoot biomass of all species (g)
* inverseSimpson: inverse Simpson's diversity index