#anthrosols

After the protoplastic materials Parkesine and Bakelite, polypropylene was found by the future Nobel laureate Giulio Natta in 1954 and began to be manufactured in 1957 [1]. Less than sixty years later, the majority of marine litter on the seafloor of five areas in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea were made of plastic (half of all plastic items were bags [2]). Accordingly, on the other side of the Ocean a team of researchers described the first rock type composed partially of plastic material that has strong potential to act as a global marker horizon in the Anthropocene [3]. But do soil microbes agree this proposal [4]?

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References:   [1]  Andrady AL, Neal MA (2009) Applications and societal benefits of plastics. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci. 364: 1977–84, http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2008.0304 

[2] Ioakeimidis C, Zeri C, Kaberi H. et al. (2014) A comparative study of marine litter on the seafloor of coastal areas in the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Seas. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 89: 296–304, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2014.09.044. 

[3] Corcoran PL, Moore CJ, Jazvac K (2013) An anthropogenic marker horizon in the future rock record. GSA Today 24: 4–8 http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/GSAT-G198A.1 

Even in the dance, the soil was seen as support for human activities. Perhaps the dance-theater of Pina Bausch is not the norm but certainly the importance of soil is known to all living beings. Cover it with a seal and soil loses many of its potential functions. For instance,  soil organic carbon underlying capped surfaces has weaker decomposability and lower turnover rate compared with that in open areas. More green spaces or semi-pervious pavement systems in future urban construction will mitigate the negative consequences of urban artificial soil sealing [doi>10.1371/journal.pone.0109380][1].

Downloadable data about Europe's environment: degree of soil sealing.

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