Effects of Biodegradable Film Mulching on Bacterial Diversity in Soils

Abstract The spread of biodegradable plastic film (BDFs) not only increase grain yield but also reduce the environmental pollution from plastic film to a large extent. Soil microbes have been considered to be involved in biodegradation processes. However, the study of microbes diversity in soil mulched with biodegradable plastic film remains limited. Here, we compared the diversity of microbes between soils with biodegradable film and non-biodegradable film (NBDF) mulch. The results showed that BDFs affected on the soil quality parameters, such as total C, P and NH4+-N, but also on the microbes species richness (ACE; Chao1) and diversity (Simpson index; Shannon index). In terms of dominant phyla and genera, BDFs and NBDF can influence the abundance of disparate species. Furthermore, BDFs could also contribute to improve the richness of the important functional bacterial groups in soil, e.g. Pedomicrobium and Comamonas, both of which have been found to be involved in the degradation of plastic residues in soil. Finally, we found that BDFs improved the transformation of nitrogen through increased significantly the abundances of Nitrobacter and Nitrospira. Our results highlight the impact of BDFs mulch on the abundance of functional bacteria in the soil.