Plastic pollution in croplands threatens long‐term food security. (12th April 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Dan; Ng, Ee Ling; Hu, Wanli; Wang, Hongyuan; Galaviz, Pablo; Yang, Hude; Sun, Wentao; Li, Chongxiao; Ma, Xingwang; Fu, Bin; Zhao, Peiyi; Zhang, Fulin; Jin, Shuqin; Zhou, Mingdong; Du, Lianfeng; Peng, Chang; Zhang, Xuejun; Xu, Zhiyu; Xi, Bin; Liu, Xiaoxia; Sun, Shiyou; Cheng, Zhenhua; Jiang, Lihua; Wang, Yufeng; Gong, Liang; Kou, Changlin; Li, Yan; Ma, Youhua; Huang, Dongfeng; Zhu, Jian; Yao, Jianwu; Lin, Chaowen; Qin, Song; Zhou, Liuqiang; He, Binghui; Chen, Deli; Li, Huanchun; Zhai, Limei; Lei, Qiuliang; Wu, Shuxia; Zhang, Yitao; Pan, Junting; Gu, Baojing; Liu, Hongbin;
• Is Part Of: Global change biology. Volume 26:Number 6(2020)
• Page Start: 3356
• Page End: 3367
• Publication Date: 2020-04-12
• Subjects: crop yield -- long‐term consequence -- meta‐analysis -- plastic residue -- policy -- soil health; Climatic changes -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Troposphere -- Environmental aspects -- Periodicals; Biodiversity conservation -- Periodicals; Eutrophication -- Periodicals; 551.5
• DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15043
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1354-1013

Abstract

Abstract: Plastic pollution is a global concern given its prevalence in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Studies have been conducted on the distribution and impact of plastic pollution in marine ecosystems, but little is known on terrestrial ecosystems. Plastic mulch has been widely used to increase crop yields worldwide, yet the impact of plastic residues in cropland soils to soil health and crop production in the long term remained unclear. In this paper, using a global meta‐analysis, we found that the use of plastic mulch can indeed increase crop yields on average by 25%–42% in the immediate season due to the increase of soil temperature (+8%) and moisture (+17%). However, the unabated accumulation of film residues in the field negatively impacts its physicochemical properties linked to healthy soil and threatens food production in the long term. It has multiple negative impacts on plant growth including crop yield (at the mean rate of −3% for every additional 100 kg/ha of film residue), plant height (−2%) and root weight (−5%), and soil properties including soil water evaporation capacity (−2%), soil water infiltration rate (−8%), soil organic matter (−0.8%) and soil available phosphorus (−5%) based on meta‐regression. Using a nationwide field survey of China, the largest user of plastic mulch worldwide, we found that plastic residue accumulation in cropland soils has reached 550, 800 tonnes, with an estimated 6%–10% reduction in cotton yield in some polluted sites based on current level of plastic residue content. Immediate actions should be taken to ensure the recovery of plastic film mulch and limit further increase in film residue loading to maintain the sustainability of these croplands. Abstract : Plastic pollution is a global concern given its prevalence in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. In this paper, we found that the use of plastic mulch can indeed increase crop yields in the immediate season due to the increase of soil temperature and moisture. However, the unabated accumulation of film residues in the field negatively impacts its physicochemical properties linked to healthy soil and threatens food production in the long term. Immediate actions should be taken to ensure the recovery of plastic film mulch and limit further increase in film residue loading to maintain the sustainability of these croplands.