Impacts and mechanism of biodegradable microplastics on lake sediment properties, bacterial dynamics, and greenhouse gasses emissions

Abstract

The accumulation of microplastics (MPs) in freshwater ecosystems plays a vital role in greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions from lake sediment by altering sediment properties and microbial communities. Thus, a short-term microcosm experiment was performed to explore the effect of conventional polyethylene (PE) and biodegradable Poly (butylene-adipate-co-terephtalate) (PBAT) MPs on carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) emissions from lake sediment and associated microbial community. The results indicated that at 1.0 % concentration, the cumulative CO2 emissions were increased by 16.8 % and the cumulative CH4 emissions were increased more than four times following the addition of biodegradable MPs compared to conventional MPs, which was due to the more dissolved organic carbon (DOC) provided by biodegradable MPs for microbial respiration. Furthermore, the cumulative CO2 and CH4 emissions significantly (p < 0.05) increased with the increasing concentrations of biodegradable MPs. Notably, the accumulation of MPs could weaken the microbial stress from requirements of energy and substrate, and increase the microbial biomass carbon (MBC) value, thus eventually improving the respiratory capacity of microbes. In addition, the biodegradable MPs significantly increased the abundance of microbes, such as Firmicutes, Myxococcota and Actinobacteriota, which were related to the function of anaerobic respiration. Overall, we concluded that the abundant DOC provided by biodegradable MPs could promote the growth of microbes in lake sediment, and they could change the structure and diversity of the microbial community, which would eventually enhance the anaerobic respiration of microbes and aggravate the GHGs emissions.