Data from: The impact of biodegradable microplastics on soil priming effects in poplar shelterbelts across an afforestation gradient
Data files
Jun 08, 2026 version files 41.74 KB
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Raw_data.xlsx
39.26 KB
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README.md
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Abstract
The widespread agricultural use of biodegradable plastics may cause the persistence of biodegradable microplastics (BMPs) in afforested soils, which could compromise the soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration in shelterbelts through priming effects. However, the influence of BMPs on SOC priming effects across different afforestation gradients remains unclear. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) and polylactic acid (PLA), two typical BMPs, were investigated for their influence on the priming effect in soils collected from abandoned farmland and poplar shelterbelts aged 5, 10, 15, and 20 years (5‑, 10‑, 15‑, and 20‑year stands). The difference in isotopic values (δ13C) between BMPs and SOC (> 10‰) was employed to differentiate the sources of CO2 emissions. Our results showed that PHA and PLA induced positive priming effects across the afforestation gradient through modifying soil physicochemical and aggregate properties, as well as reshaping bacterial community composition via these changes. The priming effects of PHA and PLA ranged from 83.00% to 295.41% and from 9.79% to 80.91%, respectively. Both effects initially increased and then decreased along the afforestation gradient, a trend that may be partly explained by the contrasting patterns of SOC content and the C/N ratio. This short‑term experiment demonstrated that BMPs induced stronger positive priming in 5‑, 10‑, and 15‑year stands than in abandoned farmland, peaking at 10‑ and 15‑year stands. Therefore, to minimize BMP‑induced SOC loss in afforested soils, we recommend: (1) assess BMP contamination pre‑afforestation, prioritizing low‑risk sites and applying remediation where needed; (2) enhance post-afforestation monitoring of BMP contamination, particularly in 10‑ and 15‑year stands.
Description of the data and file structure
File name: Raw_data.xlsx
Soil data for the variables tested in the paper.
Variables are as follows:
- Groups = The goups of the biodegradable microplastics addition and control
- AF, 5Y, 10Y, 15Y, 20Y = Abandoned farmland and 5-, 10-, 15-, and 20-year stands, respectively
- Cummulative CO2 of 3 d (mg CO2-C g-1 SOC) = The cumulative CO2 release of soil samples after three days of incubation
- Cummulative soil-derived CO2 emissions of 3 d (mg CO2-C g-1 SOC) = The cumulative soil-derived CO2 release of soil samples after three days of incubation
- Cummulative priming effects of 3 d (%) = The cumulative relative priming effects after three days of incubation
- δ13 C of 3d (‰) = The δ13 C of CO2 after three days of incubation
- DOC (mg kg-1) = Dissolved organic carbon content of soil samples after incubation
- MBC (mg kg-1) = Microbial biomass carbon content of soil samples after incubation
- DTN (mg kg-1) = Dissolved total nitrogen content of soil samples after incubation
- MBN (mg kg-1) = Microbial biomass nitrogen content in soil samples after incubation
- NH4+-N (mg kg-1) = Content of ammonium nitrogen in soil samples after incubation
- NO3--N (mg kg-1) = Nitrate nitrogen content in soil samples after incubation
- pH = pH value of soil samples after incubation
- MA (％) =The particle size ratio of macroaggregates
- MI (％) = The particle size ratio of microaggregates
- SC (％) = The particle size ratio of silt-clay fractions
- SOC (g kg-1) = Soil organic carbon
- SOC of MA (g kg-1) = The organic carbon content of macroaggregates
- SOC of MI (g kg-1) = The organic carbon content of microaggregates
- SOC of SC (g kg-1) = The organic carbon content of silt-clay fractions
- Chao 1 index = Chao 1 index of bacterial alpha diversity
- Shannon index = Shannon index of bacterial alpha diversity
- β-diversity (PCoA 1) = PCoA 1 score of bacterial beta diversity
- β-diversity (PCoA 2) = PCoA 2 score of bacterial beta diversity
- Pseudomonadota, Acidobacteriota, Actinomycetota, Chloroflexota, Bacillota, Gemmatimonadota, Bacteroidota, Myxococcota, Planctomycetota, Methylomirabilota, Nitrospirota, Verrucomicrobiota, and Patescibacteria = The relative abundances (as decimals) of the corresponding bacterial phyla in the sample
- / = No data were obtained.