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Agronomy
Volume 16
Issue 3
10.3390/agronomy16030329
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Article

One-Season Polyethylene Mulching Reduces Cadmium Uptake in Rice but Disrupts Rhizosphere Microbial Community Stability: A Double-Edged Sword

by
Tao Luo
1,†,
Runtong Huang
2,3,†,
Zheng Lin
2,3,
Chongfeng Gao
1,
Xiaolong Liu
1,
Shuai Xiao
2,
Liqin Zheng
1,
Shunan Zhang
2,
Rui Du
2,
Lei Wang
4,
Hongxia Duan
1,*,
Zhimin Xu
2,* and
Jinshui Wu
2
1
Key Laboratory of Arable Land Improvement and Quality Improvement of Jiangxi Province, Jiangxi Institute of Red soil and Germplasm Resources, Nanchang 330046, China
2
Changsha Research Station for Agricultural & Environmental Monitoring, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha 410125, China
3
College of Resources and Environment, Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering, Guangzhou 510225, China
4
College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300350, China
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Agronomy 2026, 16(3), 329; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy16030329
Submission received: 1 December 2025 / Revised: 25 December 2025 / Accepted: 23 January 2026 / Published: 28 January 2026
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microplastics and Nanoplastics in Agroecosystems: Strategies to Mitigate Plastic Pollution for Sustainable Agriculture)
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Abstract

Polyethylene (PE) mulching has been widely practiced in agriculture for decades, but its short-term impacts on heavy metal dynamics and crop safety under field conditions remain poorly understood. In this study, a one-season field trial was carried out in Cd-contaminated paddy to evaluate how PE mulching influences rhizosphere microbial communities, soil physicochemical properties, and Cd accumulation in rice. Results showed that PE mulching improved rice performance, increasing dry grain weight by 14.47% and thousand-grain weight by 1.10 folds, while reducing grain Cd concentration from 0.2307 to 0.1727 mg/kg, below the national safety threshold of 0.2 mg/kg. These effects were closely linked to elevated soil pH, decreased redox potential, and the enrichment of metal-reducing (Geobacteraceae, Desulfuromonadia) and sulfate-reducing (Desulfosporosinus, Methanospirillum) taxa, which promoted Cd immobilization into less bioavailable forms. A structural equation model (SEM) further confirmed that microbial abundance and Cd speciation were key factors associated with Cd uptake by rice. However, PE mulching also reduced microbial diversity and functional redundancy, disrupted co-occurrence networks, and potentially weakened rhizosphere ecosystem stability and resilience in the short term. This study provides field-based evidence that PE mulching reduces food safety risks and improves yield but destabilizes soil microbial communities, highlighting its short-term double-edged ecological effects and the need for balanced management to sustain productivity and soil health.
Keywords: polyethylene mulching; rice yield; soil redox potential (Eh); heavy metal immobilization; rhizosphere community assembly polyethylene mulching; rice yield; soil redox potential (Eh); heavy metal immobilization; rhizosphere community assembly

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MDPI and ACS Style

Luo, T.; Huang, R.; Lin, Z.; Gao, C.; Liu, X.; Xiao, S.; Zheng, L.; Zhang, S.; Du, R.; Wang, L.; et al. One-Season Polyethylene Mulching Reduces Cadmium Uptake in Rice but Disrupts Rhizosphere Microbial Community Stability: A Double-Edged Sword. Agronomy 2026, 16, 329. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy16030329

AMA Style

Luo T, Huang R, Lin Z, Gao C, Liu X, Xiao S, Zheng L, Zhang S, Du R, Wang L, et al. One-Season Polyethylene Mulching Reduces Cadmium Uptake in Rice but Disrupts Rhizosphere Microbial Community Stability: A Double-Edged Sword. Agronomy. 2026; 16(3):329. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy16030329

Chicago/Turabian Style

Luo, Tao, Runtong Huang, Zheng Lin, Chongfeng Gao, Xiaolong Liu, Shuai Xiao, Liqin Zheng, Shunan Zhang, Rui Du, Lei Wang, and et al. 2026. "One-Season Polyethylene Mulching Reduces Cadmium Uptake in Rice but Disrupts Rhizosphere Microbial Community Stability: A Double-Edged Sword" Agronomy 16, no. 3: 329. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy16030329

APA Style

Luo, T., Huang, R., Lin, Z., Gao, C., Liu, X., Xiao, S., Zheng, L., Zhang, S., Du, R., Wang, L., Duan, H., Xu, Z., & Wu, J. (2026). One-Season Polyethylene Mulching Reduces Cadmium Uptake in Rice but Disrupts Rhizosphere Microbial Community Stability: A Double-Edged Sword. Agronomy, 16(3), 329. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy16030329

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