Plants (May 2024)

Microplastic Has No Effect on Rice Yield and Gaseous N Emission from an Infertile Soil with High Inorganic N Inputs

  • Si Wu,
  • Haiying Lu,
  • Zhenghua Yi,
  • Gui Chen,
  • Haijun Sun

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13091279
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 9
p. 1279

Abstract

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Microplastic might affect the crop yield, nitrogen (N) use efficiency and reactive N losses from agricultural soil systems. However, evaluation of these effects in infertile soil planted with different rice cultivars is lacking. We conducted a soil column experiment to determine the influence of a typical microplastic polyethylene (PE) input into an infertile soil with 270 kg N ha−1 and planted with two rice cultivars, i.e., a common rice Nangeng 5055 (NG) and a hybrid rice Jiafengyou 6 (JFY). The results showed that JFY produced a significantly (p −1) but was not influenced by PE. Overall, PE hardly changed the N use efficiency of NG and JFY. Unexpectedly, PE significantly (p p 3) (0.84–0.92 vs. 0.64–0.67 g N pot−1) but emitted equal nitrous oxide (N2O). PE exerted no effect on either NH3 volatilization or the N2O emission flux pattern and cumulative losses of the rice growth cycle, whether with NG or JFY. Some properties of tested soils changed after planting with different rice cultivars and incorporating with microplastic. In conclusion, the rice production, N use efficiency, NH3 volatilization and N2O emission from the N-fertilized infertile soil were pronouncedly influenced by the rice cultivar, but not the PE. However, PE influenced the grain quality of common rice and some properties of tested soils with both rice cultivars.

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