Microplastic biodegradability does not modify plant carbon input in soil but accelerate soil carbon loss in agroecosystems

Microplastics (MPs) are emerging contaminants that disrupt terrestrial carbon (C) cycling, yet how their biodegradability modulates the turnover of plant-derived C remains unclear. Here, we investigated how two widely used MPs—non-biodegradable polyethylene (PE) and biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA)—affected the fate of photosynthetically fixed C in dryland agroecosystem. The goal was to explore how MPs influenced C fluxes across soil-plant-atmosphere continuum (SPAC) and assess their implications on climate change.
We conducted a two-year field experiment to evaluate how PE and PLA-based MPs affected plant photosynthetic C fixation and its subsequent turnover in soil. Using 13CO2 pulse-labeling, we traced the flow of photosynthetically fixed C across the SPAC under low, medium and high MPs concentrations. We quantified: (i) 13C distribution in plant shoots, roots, and bulk soil; (ii) 13C allocation among soil aggregate size fractions; and (iii) microbial EEAs, CAZy gene abundance, an..., , # Data from: Microplastic biodegradability does not modify plant carbon input in soil but accelerate soil carbon loss in agroecosystems

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.t76hdr8dx](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.t76hdr8dx)

## Description of the data and file structure

#### Files and variables

File: DATA.csv

All raw data associated with the figures have been compiled in the file DATA.csv.

*Notes:

Treatment:

CT: control, no addition of microplastic

PE-L: polyethylene microplastics in low concentration

PE-M: polyethylene microplastics in medium concentration

PE-H: polylactic acid microplastics in high concentration

PLA-L: polylactic acid microplastics in low concentration

PE-M: polylactic acid microplastics in medium concentration

PE-H: polylactic acid microplastics in high concentration

Data：

*13C-Shoot/Root/Soil/Respiration: 13C content in shoots, roots, soil and soil respiration (mg m^-2^)

*Total recovery: Total recovery of 13C (%)

*Shoots(%)/Roots(%)/Soil(%)/Respiration(%...,

微塑料（Microplastics, MPs）是一类新兴污染物，可干扰陆地碳（C）循环，但目前尚不明确其生物可降解性如何调控植物源碳的周转过程。本研究以旱地农田生态系统为研究对象，探究了两种广泛应用的微塑料——不可生物降解的聚乙烯（polyethylene, PE）与可生物降解的聚乳酸（polylactic acid, PLA）——对光合固定碳归趋的影响。研究旨在阐明微塑料如何调控土壤-植物-大气连续体（soil-plant-atmosphere continuum, SPAC）内的碳通量，并评估其对气候变化的潜在影响。

本研究开展了为期两年的田间试验，以评估PE基与PLA基微塑料对植物光合碳固定及其后续土壤周转过程的影响。通过¹³CO₂脉冲标记技术，我们追踪了低、中、高三种微塑料浓度梯度下，光合固定碳在SPAC中的迁移路径。本研究量化了以下三项核心内容：(i) 植物地上部、根系及原状土壤中的¹³C分布；(ii) ¹³C在土壤团聚体粒径分级中的分配比例；(iii) 微生物胞外酶活性（EEAs）、碳水化合物活性酶（CAZy）基因丰度及……

# 数据来源：《微塑料生物可降解性未改变土壤中植物碳输入，但加速农田生态系统土壤碳流失》
数据集DOI：[10.5061/dryad.t76hdr8dx](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.t76hdr8dx)

## 数据与文件结构说明
#### 文件与变量
文件：DATA.csv
所有与图表相关的原始数据均汇总于DATA.csv文件中。

*注：
处理组设置：
CT：对照组，不添加微塑料
PE-L：低浓度聚乙烯微塑料
PE-M：中浓度聚乙烯微塑料
PE-H：高浓度聚乙烯微塑料
PLA-L：低浓度聚乳酸微塑料
PLA-M：中浓度聚乳酸微塑料
PLA-H：高浓度聚乳酸微塑料
（注：原文此处存在笔误，已按研究逻辑修正）

数据指标：
*13C-Shoot/Root/Soil/Respiration：植物地上部、根系、土壤及土壤呼吸中的¹³C含量（单位：mg·m⁻²）
*Total recovery：¹³C总回收率（单位：%）
*Shoots(%)/Roots(%)/Soil(%)/Respiration(%)：各组分中¹³C占总回收¹³C的百分比……