POTENTIAL OF A CORN STARCH-BASED BIODEGRADABLE PLASTIC FILM FOR SOIL SOLARIZATION

Soil solarization is an important practice for small-acreage farmers and home gardeners and is used commercially in areas with high solar radiation and air temperature during the summer. In this technique, clear plastic films are used to increase soil temperature to manage soil-borne plant pests such as insects, diseases, nematodes, fungi, and weeds. Several different kinds of plastic films were evaluated in 2007 and 2008 for durability, weather tolerance, and weed suppression. Treatments were arranged in a randomized complete block design with five replications. In 2007, treatments were four clear plastic films including: ISO, VeriPack, Poly Pak, Bromostop®, and a white plastic control. In 2008, treatments were Polydak®, Poly Pak, Bromostop®, and white plastic. Films were evaluated for weed suppression based on the population density of weeds that emerged through breaks in the plastic, for durability in terms of number and size of breaks in the films, and for the total exposed soil area resulting from breaks. Purple nutsedge (Cyperus rotundus) was the major weed problem throughout both years. In both years, total exposed area was greater with white plastic and Bromostop® (81.5 ft2/bed) compared with other plastic films (<21.5 ft2/bed). Due to their durability, Poly Pak, ISO, and VeriPack suppressed nutsedge more than Bromostop and white plastic. Although a number of very small (<0.75 inch long) breaks were observed in Polydak® plastic film, they never increased in size, and this plastic film remained intact throughout the experiment and provided excellent weed control.

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Avoidance behaviour testing of Eisenia andrei in biodegradable plastic environment

Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis ◽

10.11118/actaun201361051423 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 61 (5) ◽

pp. 1423-1429 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Zuzana Tichá ◽

Pavel Mach ◽

Markéta Žáková ◽

Monika Vítězová

Keyword(s):

Corn Starch ◽

Test Organism ◽

Biodegradable Plastic ◽

Avoidance Behaviour ◽

Rapid Screening ◽

Avoidance Reaction ◽

Test Substance ◽

Eisenia Andrei ◽

Rapid Screening Test ◽

Escape Reaction

Avoidance behaviour test with the earthworms (ISO 17512-1:2008) is a rapid screening test for the evaluation of soil and the influence of pollutants and chemicals on the behaviour of earthworms. The purpose of the testing is to determine the avoidance behaviour of earthworm (in this case Eisenia andrei was used) which can be used as an organism for the composting and occur naturally in soil environment. The methodology was modified according to the needs of the avoidance behaviour testing of earthworms in biodegradable plastic environment. It is a biodegradable thermoplastic material Mater-Bi, which is produced from corn starch. Californian earthworm (Eisenia andrei) was chosen as a test organism. The two-chamber test was used in testing. 10 earthworms were used, which were exposed to a number of concentrations of the test substance, which was mixed into the compost environment. It was recorded both a positive result, avoidance reaction, as well as a negative result, non-avoidance reaction and also there was a case, where individuals prefer both substrates equally. Organisms showed no escape reaction and were fairly evenly distributed in both halves of the test vessel, it can be assessed that organisms prefer both substrates equally. In testing, the mortality was zero, none of the individuals died, at the conclusion of the test there were not found any dead individuals. Avoidance higher than 80 % didn’t occur; it cannot be said that the substrate is toxic or degraded.

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Peer Review #1 of "Effects of biodegradable plastic film mulching on soil microbial communities in two agroecosystems (v0.2)"

10.7287/peerj.9015v0.2/reviews/1 ◽

2020 ◽

Keyword(s):

Microbial Communities ◽

Peer Review ◽

Soil Microbial Communities ◽

Biodegradable Plastic ◽

Plastic Film ◽

Plastic Film Mulching ◽

Soil Microbial ◽

Film Mulching

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Pengaruh Kadar Air Dan Jenis Plastisizer Terhadap Sifat Fisik Plastik Biodegradable Dari Campuran Pati Jagung Dan Polivinil Alkohol

Jurnal Kimia dan Kemasan ◽

10.24817/jkk.v0i0.4798 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 18-27

Author(s):

Budi Utami ◽

Hendartini Hendartini

Keyword(s):

Environmental Problem ◽

Corn Starch ◽

Solid Material ◽

Barrier Properties ◽

Nucleating Agent ◽

Biodegradable Plastic ◽

The Other ◽

Glycerol Monostearate ◽

Plastic Packaging ◽

Alternative Choice

Recently the use of plastic packaging is become avoided because their waste will create environmental problem. As an alternative choice the use of biodegradable plastic packaging has been developed Research on biodegradable plastic has been carried out to study the effect of water content and kind of plasticizer on mechanical properties of the biodegradable plastic made from corn starch and polyvinyl alcohol. The result shows that water can increase the elongation of the plastic, but on the other hand it can decrease the tensile strength and barrier properties by increasing the water vapour transsmision rate. Therefore the use of water as a plasticizer must be mixed with other plasticizer such as glycerol, sorbitol, polyethylene glycol and glycerol monostearate. In this study the best result is by using mixture of water andsorbitol with ratio = 5: I and the ratio of solid material (starch + PVOH +nucleating agent) and plasticizer = 1 : I.

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Effects of Biodegradable Film Mulching on Bacterial Diversity in Soils

10.21203/rs.3.rs-219647/v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Yinhao Xue ◽

Tuo Jin ◽

Chengyu Gao ◽

Chongxiao Li ◽

Tao Zhou ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Quality Parameters ◽

Shannon Index ◽

Biodegradable Plastic ◽

Plastic Film ◽

Simpson Index ◽

Biodegradable Film ◽

Functional Bacteria ◽

Film Mulching ◽

The Impact ◽

Bacterial Groups

Abstract The spread of biodegradable plastic film (BDFs) not only increase grain yield but also reduce the environmental pollution from plastic film to a large extent. Soil microbes have been considered to be involved in biodegradation processes. However, the study of microbes diversity in soil mulched with biodegradable plastic film remains limited. Here, we compared the diversity of microbes between soils with biodegradable film and non-biodegradable film (NBDF) mulch. The results showed that BDFs affected on the soil quality parameters, such as total C, P and NH4+-N, but also on the microbes species richness (ACE; Chao1) and diversity (Simpson index; Shannon index). In terms of dominant phyla and genera, BDFs and NBDF can influence the abundance of disparate species. Furthermore, BDFs could also contribute to improve the richness of the important functional bacterial groups in soil, e.g. Pedomicrobium and Comamonas, both of which have been found to be involved in the degradation of plastic residues in soil. Finally, we found that BDFs improved the transformation of nitrogen through increased significantly the abundances of Nitrobacter and Nitrospira. Our results highlight the impact of BDFs mulch on the abundance of functional bacteria in the soil.

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