Soils, Plastispheres, and Earthworm Guts in a Microcosm with Microplastic Pollution and Metaphire guillelmi Application Targeted loci environmental
The five treatment groups are as follows:(1) CK (control group): soil containing only earthworms;(2) PE: soil with earthworms exposed to PE particles;(3) PLA: soil with earthworms exposed to PLA particles;(4) sPE: soil containing only PE particles without earthworms;(5) sPLA: soil containing only PLA particles without earthworms.Each microcosm contained 800 g of soil. Adult earthworms (Metaphire guillelmi) were added at a quantity of six individuals per microcosm. The microplastics, polyethylene (PE) and polylactic acid (PLA), were introduced at a concentration of 0.02%.