Polyethylene (PE) and other non-degradable plastics are used in vast quantities as agriculture mulch to help protect the soil surface, conserve water, and improve soil microclimatic factors. Unfortunately, their continued use poses several environmental problems, so an environmentally friendly solution needs to be found. The use of biodegradable plastics in place of conventional PE is one well studied solution, and here we investigate how different controlled environmental conditions affect the water conservation efficacy, and rate of biodegradation of a novel, biodegradable, sprayable polycaprolactone based polyurethane mulch. The effect of soil moisture content, sunlight, soil type, and polymer pigmentation are investigated using several different characterization techniques and measurements. It was found that the polymer studied is effective at conserving soil moisture, and that it biodegrades at different rates via a bulk erosion mechanism. The rate at which it degrades mostly depends on the soil type to which it is applied, and the moisture content of that soil. This was confirmed using soil CO₂ emissions, polymer mass loss, polymer molecular weight reduction, and scanning electron microscopy. Results are discussed.

聚乙烯（PE）和其他不可降解的塑料大量用作农业覆盖物，有助于保护土壤表面，节约用水并改善土壤微气候因素。不幸的是，它们的连续使用带来了几个环境问题，因此需要找到一种环境友好的解决方案。使用可生物降解的塑料代替常规PE是一种经过充分研究的解决方案，在这里，我们研究了不同的受控环境条件如何影响节水功效以及新型，可生物降解，可喷涂聚己内酯基聚氨酯覆盖物的生物降解速率。使用几种不同的表征技术和测量方法研究了土壤含水量，日光，土壤类型和聚合物色素沉着的影响。发现所研究的聚合物可有效保持土壤水分，并通过整体侵蚀机制以不同速率生物降解。它的降解速率主要取决于所施用的土壤类型以及该土壤的水分含量。使用土壤CO证实了这一点₂排放，聚合物质量损失，聚合物分子量降低和扫描电子显微镜。结果进行了讨论。