Biodegradable PLA/PBAT mulch on microbial community structure in different soils

The changes of microbial community in the Shandong soil and Xinjiang soil were compared using high-throughput sequencing after using polylactic acid/polybutylene adipate terephthalate (PLA/PBAT) mulch. The function of microbial community was predicted using PICRUSt analysis. The results showed that compared with the no-PLA/PBAT mulch, microbial community structure changed significantly and the dominant bacteria in different soils were mainly the Acidobacteria, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria and Chloroflexi. The abundance of degrading bacteria in Shandong soil was 1.2%, which was significantly higher than the soil without PLA/PBAT mulch. The degradation of functional bacteria (3 species, Sphingomonas, Bacillus, Streptomyces) in Shandong soil was also more than Xinjiang soil (1 species, Sphingomonas). Shandong soil was more suitable for PLA/PBAT mulch. Based on the functional prediction of the 16S rRNA gene sequence, there were many degradation-related genes in Shandong and Xinjiang soils and the degrading bacteria with functional genes in Shandong soil were enriched after using PLA/PBAT mulch.