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Soil microplastics
Summary
Researchers digging up soil samples found tiny plastic coatings left behind from slow-release fertilizers, the same kind used on farms and lawns, building up in the ground. These plastic bits don't just disappear after the fertilizer does its job; they stick around in the soil, which matters because that's the same dirt growing our food and potentially breaking down into microplastics that can work their way into water and crops we eat.
This project investigated the abundance and areal density of polymer-coatings left after slow-release fertilizers were applied. Samples were collected by excavating a small monolith (625 cm2) from 0-5cm or 5-10cm deep. Soil plastics were separated out by mechanical sieving and tweezers' date - Date on which sample was collected flag_location - Unique location identifier elevation - Hillslope position of sample locations watershed - Which watershed does the sample belong to East or West (Adjacent watersheds) depth - Sampling depth mass - Mass of polymer coatings (g) collected (625 cm2) count - Number of polymer coating collected n_m2 - Number of polymer coatings per square meter mass_m2 - Mass (g) of polymer coatings per square meter mass_n - Average mass of an individual polymer coating