Effects of microplastics on soil microbial community structure and symbiotic network analysis

Soil is the main reservoir of microplastics, and the "plastic sphere" can be formed after microplastics enter the soil ecosystem,which is significantly different from the surrounding environment and might affect the soil microbial community structure. Exogenous microplastic particles were added to simulate different degrees of farmland soil microplastic pollution and explore the effects of microplastics on soil microbial communities. The results showed that microplastics pollution could greatly change the bacterial and fungal communities at the microbial genus level in soil. In rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soils, the number of specific genera of fungal community in the high concentration group of microplastics treatment was significantly higher than that in the low concentration group (p<0.05). The changes of bacterial community and fungal community structure in rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soils caused by microplastics pollution were significantly different. And the results of soil microbial community diversity and symbiotic network analysis showed that the addition of microplastics in the high concentration group significantly reduced soil microbial diversity, and the effect of microplastics on rhizosphere soil microorganisms was greater than that of non-rhizosphere soil. The results suggested that the response degree of soil fungi community to microplastics pollution was greater than that of bacteria community, and further attention should be paid to rhizosphere soil monitoring in the future.