Effects of Plastics in Soil-Plant System

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, more and more attention has been paid to the pollution of the environment with plastics and the fate of already used, discarded plastics in the ecosystem. Plastics are a persistent and silent threat to the environment and are already considered a significant problem in aquatic environments, however, the presence and effects of plastic in soils and terrestrial ecosystems has been largely unexplored. As a possible solution, the use of biodegradable plastics is on the rise, but the effect of the substances formed during their degradation on plants and the soil is almost completely unknown. Healthy soil microbiomes are crucial for achieving e.g. high productivity in combination with crop quality in agriculture.

Results so far prove that the occurrence and accumulation of conventional, petroleum-based and biodegradable (micro) plastics in soil can influence plant growth and microbial communities to a different degree, thus it is very important to obtain more knowledge about the underlying mechanisms of these changes.

This Special Issue of Plants will gather and showcase articles focusing on the effect of different plastics on plants and the plant-soil system.

Dr. Gábor Feigl
Dr. Etelka Kovács
Prof. Dr. Enke Liu 
Guest Editors

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