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人们已提出采用生物可降解塑料（biodegradable plastics）作为替代方案，以缓解传统非生物可降解塑料（non-biodegradable plastics）引发的污染问题。然而，这两类微塑料（microplastics）对植物群落生产力与多样性的相对影响尚不明确。此外，土壤生物群（soil biota）是否能差异化介导生物可降解与非生物可降解微塑料对植物群落的影响，目前仍未可知。本研究探究了生物可降解与非生物可降解微塑料对植物群落生物量生产与多样性的影响，以及土壤生物群是否介导了这些效应。我们采用完全交叉因子设计，设置有无10种单一微塑料、活体土壤与灭菌土壤的梯度，培育6组植物群落。我们提出如下假说：1）相较于非生物可降解微塑料，生物可降解微塑料对植物群落生物量生产与多样性的负面影响更弱。2）土壤生物群可差异化……我们开展了一项温室实验，设置6组植物群落（每组包含5种植物），并将其分配至2种土壤处理（活体土壤 vs. 灭菌土壤）×11种微塑料处理（5种生物可降解微塑料、5种非生物可降解微塑料，以及1个无微塑料对照组）的组合中。每个处理设置4个重复。所有植物数据均采集自该实验。此外，我们从中国东北草原（呼伦贝尔；119°38'E，50°20'N）一项始于2020年的平行长期实验中采集土壤，该实验旨在探究微塑料污染对草原植物群落多样性与生产力的影响。我们从每份样本中随机采集0.5g土壤用于提取。共收集100份土壤样本[10种微塑料处理（无微塑料、5种生物可降解微塑料、4种非生物可降解微塑料）×10个重复]，并立即置于-80℃下保存，直至DNA提取。 # 土壤生物群调控微塑料对植物群落生物量与多样性的影响 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fttdz092k] ## 数据与文件结构说明 ### 文件与变量 #### 文件：plant_community_biomass.xls **描述：** 植物数据 ##### 变量 * group：A至F代表6组植物群落 * soil：no=活体土壤，yes=灭菌土壤 * plastic：10种常用微塑料 * character：微塑料特性 * site：随机编号 * Species 1-5：各物种的地上生物量（g） * total：所有物种的总地上生物量（g） * inverseSimpson：逆辛普森多样性指数