Plants forage for soil patches free of plastic pollution but cannot bag the profits.

ABSTRACT: Microplastics can affect their surroundings physically and chemically, resulting in diverse effects on plant-soil systems. Similar to other substances (e.g. nutrients and water), microplastics in the environment occur in patches. Such heterogeneous distributions could affect plant responses to plastic pollution. Yet, this has remained untested. We conducted a multispecies experiment including 29 herbaceous plant species and three different microplastic treatments (a control without microplastics, a homogeneous and a heterogeneous microplastic distribution). Based on biomass and root-morphological traits, we assessed how different plastic distributions affect the performance and root-foraging behavior of plants, and whether stronger root foraging is beneficial when microplastics are distrib

SUBMITTER: Speißer B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10613303 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature