Biol 114: The Effect of Microplastics On Arabidopsis thaliana Growth and Development

Previous biological studies have shown that microplastics and nanoplastics affect terrestrial ecosystems by disrupting plant growth and soil biomes. Microplastics in soil can damage the growth of plants by causing the cell membranes to break down and open pores. Glitter, which is considered to be a microplastic due to its small size of less than 5 millimeters, was added to the soil of Arabidopsis thaliana seed – a common weed that grows rapidly. Each control group and experimental group contained wild type plants as well as mutant plants. After measuring the rosette diameter three times over the course of five weeks of growth, the collected data was used for examination and analysis to determine how microplastics correlated not only to the growth of wild type plants, but also mutant plants. Throughout the experiment, there was little significance found between all groups. The data collected shows that the wild type and mutant experimental groups experienced more growth initially, suggesting that the plants adapted and possibly used the microplastics as a stimulus to grow.