TITLE:
Macroplastics on Soil-Plant System: Inhibiting Effects of Macroplastics on the Growth of Green Amaranth (Amaranthus viridis)
AUTHORS:
Marzan Ferdous, Arifur Rahman Bhuiyan, Khadiza Akter Tania
KEYWORDS:
Green Amaranth, Soil Pollution, Polyethylene Contamination, Disposable Plastic, Abiotic Stress, Slow Growth of Plants
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.12 No.6,
June
23,
2021
ABSTRACT: In recent time Bangladesh faces a serious problem of
soil pollution due to plastic contamination. However, the degree of the extent
to which the effects of plastics on plant growth occur is not properly
identified. An experiment was conducted to measure the effects of mixed plastic
(polyethylene and disposable plastic glass) on the growth of Amaranthus viridis. Different doses of
mixed plastics (T0, T1, T2, and T3) were applied with a fixed amount of soil
for each of the treatments e.g., T0 (control), T1 (10 gm mixed plastics/3kg
soil), T2 (15 gm mixed plastics/3kg soil) and T3 (20 gm mixed plastic/3kg
soil), and the growth response of Amaranthus viridis against plastic was observed for six consecutive
weeks. The growth was measured in terms of plant height and girth diameter. The
results showed that the presence of mixed plastic had a significant effect on
the growth of Amaranthus viridis and particularly in treatment T3 (3 kg soil/20gm mixed plastic), the plants
showed a slower growth response compared to control and the rest of the
treatments applied in case of both plant height as well as girth diameter. The
statistical analysis (one-way Analysis of Variance) also proved the significance
of the treatments (p-values