Biodegradable plastic exposure enhances microbial functional diversity while reducing taxonomic diversity across multi-kingdom soil microbiota in cherry tomato fields.

ABSTRACT: Plastic films are extensively utilized in agroecosystems, and their residues are accumulating in global soil at a worrying rate. Biodegradable films are employed as a substitute for polyethylene (PE) films due to their rapid degradation rate. Although the taxonomic diversity of soil microbiome in response to biodegradable films has been studied, its alterations in functional diversity remain unexplored. Here, we conduct a two-year field experiment in cherry tomato to address how PE and poly (butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT) influences soil microbiota across multi-kingdom (bacteria, fungi, and protists) regarding its taxonomic and functional diversity. The results show that PBAT exposure reduces the taxonomic diversity while increasing functional diversity across multi-kingdom doma

SUBMITTER: Shi Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12647629 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature