Microplastics persist in an arable soil but do not affect soil microbial biomass, enzyme activities, and crop yield
Description
We provide reproducible R-codes and data sets accompanying the research article "Microplastics persist in an arable soil but do not affect soil microbial biomass, enzyme activities, and crop yield", which is published in the Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, Wiley‐VCH GmbH (Article DOI: 10.002/jpln.202200062). This study aimed to better understand the fate of MP and effects of MP on microbial abundance and activity related to C cycling, as well as crop yields in arable soils. We established a field experiment (1) to investigate MP background concentrations, (2) to quantify concentrations of added conventional and biodegradable MP after one and 17 months of addition, and (3) to identify potential effects of MP and of MP‐containing organic fertilizers on soil microbial abundance, activities of selected C cycling enzymes, and crop yields. We expected that (1) the arable soil shows a low but significant background MP loading (before setup), (2) biodegradable MP (PLA/PBAT) fragments in soil, (3) conventional MP (LDPE) persists and is not altered, (4) biodegradation of PLA/PBAT leads to increased activity of lipase in soil as this enzyme catalyzes ester bond cleavage, but microbial abundance, activities of enzymes catalyzing other reactions, and crop yields are not affected because breakdown of PLA/PBAT is slow and direct toxic effects MP on plants are unlikely, (5) due to its persistence, LDPE has no impact on soil microbiological indicators of C cycling or crop yields. We organized research data and analyses in two folders ("MPAnalytics" and "CarbonCycling&CropYields"). "MPAnalytics" contains all data on MP concentrations in the arable soil, while "CarbonCycling&CropYields" contains data on soil enzymes involved in C cycling, microbial carbon and nitrogen, and crop yields. See the README.html file for details on the data sets and instructions on how to run the R codes.