DOI: 10.5061/dryad.nzs7h44z0
title: The effects of microplastics on crop variation depend on polymer types and their interactions with soil nutrient availability and weed competition

description: Microplastics pollution of agricultural soil is a global environmental
 concern because of its potential risk to food security and human
 health. Although many studies have tested the direct effects of
 microplastics on growth of Eruca sativa Mill., little is
 known about whether these effects are regulated by fertilization
 and weed competition in field management practices. Here, we
 performed a greenhouse experiment growing E. sativa as target species in
 a three-factorial design with two levels of fertilization (low
 versus. high), two levels of weed competition treatments (weed
 competition versus no weed competition) and five levels of
 microplastic treatments (no microplastics, Polybutylene
 adipateco-terephthalate [PBAT], Polybutylene succinate [PBS],
 Polycaprolactone [PCL] or Polypropylene [PP]). Compared to the
 soil without microplastics, PBS and PCL reduced aboveground biomass and
 leaf number of the E. sativa. PBS also resulted in increased root
 allocation and thicker roots in E. sativa. In addition,
 fertilization significantly mitigated the negative effects of PBS and PCL
 on aboveground biomass of E. sativa, but weed competition significantly
 promoted these effects. Although fertilization alleviated the
 negative effect of PBS on aboveground biomass, such alleviation
 became weaker under weed competition than when E. sativa grew
 alone. The results indicate that the effects of specific polymer types on
 E. sativa growth could be regulated by fertilization, weed
 management, and even their interactions. Therefore, reasonable
 on-farm management practices may help in mitigating the negative
 effects of microplastics pollution on E. sativa growth in
 agricultural fields.
description: greenhouse experiment
description: # The effects of microplastics on crop variation depend on polymer types
 and their interactions with soil nutrient availability and weed
 competition
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.nzs7h44z0](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.nzs7h44z0) This file contains data of plant biomass, leaves number, root mass fraction(RMF) and specific root length(SRL).In this study, the presence of NA values in the dataset is primarily due to two reasons. Firstly, the death of four plants during the experimental process meant that we were unable to collect data from these plants, resulting in a total reduction from the expected 200 plants to 196 plants. Secondly, regarding the underground biomass data, we only harvested the roots of singly cultivated plants of the mustard species, as it was challenging to separate the intertwined roots in the case of co-cultivation, leading to NA values for this particular data point. * Shoot_Target: Above-ground biomass of *E. sativa (g)* * RMF_Target: Root mass fraction of *E. sativa (%)* * SRL_Target: Specific root length of *E. sativa (m/g)* * Shoot_Comp: Above-ground biomass of *A. retroflexus (g)* * IniH_Target: Initial hight of *E. sativa (cm)* * IniH_Comp: Initial hight of *A. retroflexus (cm)* * Target_family: Family of *Eruca sativa* Mill. * Target_species: *E. sativa* * Comp_family: Family of *Amaranthus retroflexus* L. * Comp_species: *A. retroflexus* L. * Nutriention: Fertilization treatments * Competition: Weed competition treatments * Plastic1: Microplastic treatments * leaves number_Target: Leaves number of *E. sativa*