Molecular Plant Breeding 2024, Vol.15, No.1, 34-41 http://genbreedpublisher.com/index.php/mpb 34 Review and Progress Open Access Effects of Biodegradable Mulch on Soil Microorganisms RuyeCui 1,2, XiaAn1 , Xiahong Luo1, Changli Chen1, Tingting Liu1, LinaZou1 1 Zhejiang Xiaoshan Institute of Cotton & Bast Fiber Crops, Zhejiang Institute of Landscape Plants and Flowers, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, 311251, Zhejiang, China 2 Shandong Agricultural University, School of Life Sciences, Tai’an, 271018, Shandong, China Corresponding author: anxia@zaas.ac.cn Molecular Plant Breeding, 2024, Vol.15, No.1 doi: 10.5376/mpb.2024.15.0005 Received: 25 Dec., 2023 Accepted: 30 Jan., 2024 Published: 25 Feb., 2024 Copyright © 2024 Cui et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Preferred citation for this article: Cui R.Y., An X., Luo X.H., Chen C.L., Liu T.T., and Zou L.N., 2024, Effects of biodegradable mulch on soil microorganisms, Molecular Plant Breeding, 15(1): 34-41 (doi: 10.5376/mpb.2024.15.0005) Abstract Revised sentence: Plastic mulching film plays a significant role in modern agricultural production. However, traditional plastic mulching film can result in residual film pollution and associated hazards. In contrast, degradable mulching film offers a fundamental solution to the problem of residual film pollution. This paper describes the classification of degradable plastic films and their effects on soil microorganisms, including four known types of biodegradable plastic films. Furthermore, it clarifies the impact of degradable plastic films on soil microbial biomass, soil respiration intensity, and microbial community structure. To compare the efficiency of agricultural production between degradable and traditional plastic films more intuitively, this study aims to identify both advantages and disadvantages of using degradable plastics for future production. Keywords Degradable mulch; Soil microorganisms; Biodegradation 1 Introduction As a large agricultural country, China pays great attention to crop yield and quality. Early studies have demonstrated that soil cover promotes the production and yield of annual and perennial crops (Ding et al., 2019), and mulch can cover the soil to form a physical barrier that limits soil moisture evaporation, controls weeds, maintains good soil structure, and protects crops from soil pollution. According to chemical properties mulch can be categorized into organic and inorganic mulch; according to the formation of mulch can be categorized into natural mulch and man-made mulch. Natural mulches help maintain soil organic matter and tillage (Tindall et al., 1991) and provide food and habitat for earthworms and other beneficial soil biota (Doran, 1980), but they are not available in sufficient quantities or of uniform quality, are more time-consuming and labor-intensive, and have the disadvantage that they may carry their own weed seeds, which can slow down the warming of the soil in the spring, thus causing vegetables to grow and mature more slowly. This results in longer time for vegetables to grow and mature (Hill et al., 1982), and breeds pests such as termites, slugs, snails, etc. In the case of frangipani mulch, it is often used as a protective cover for the soil. In the case of frangipani mulching, weed growth often occurs resulting in unwanted N depletion, while organic materials with a high carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, such as cereal straw, temporarily fix soil N as they decompose (Mooers et al., 1948), but prolonged mulching results in cumulative decay of the straw leading to a net mineralization of N (Ferguson and Ferguson, 1957; Steinmetz et al., 2016). Research results have shown that natural mulching can maintain soil temperature and reduce soil evaporation, but does not always improve crop yields, so synthetic mulches are becoming increasingly popular as technology develops (Zhou and Zhu, 2002). Plastic mulch was first applied in Japan, and was introduced in China in the 1870s (Dong and Xu, 1992). With the increasing use of plastic mulch and the expanding use of plastic mulch, it has caused some pollution to the soil, and film fragments produced by mulch cover will be retained in the air, soil, and water bodies on the one hand (Steinmetz et al., 2016); on the other hand, as some of the film fragments accumulate with the food chain, they eventually become hazardous to human life safety (Steinmetz et al., 2016). At the same time, because of the non-renewable nature of petroleum, which is the main source of material for plastic mulch films, the search for new biodegradable mulch films that are not harmful to humans is particularly urgent nowadays, when petroleum resources are becoming increasingly depleted.
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