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Integrating field investigations and microcosm experiments to reveal the impacts of environmentally relevant concentration microplastics on soil micro-food webs
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Microplastics are building up in soil all around us, and this study found they're already shifting the balance of bacteria, fungi, and tiny worms that keep soil healthy and able to grow our food. The good news: current real-world pollution levels seem to make soil ecosystems more active and complex, but the study warns that if plastic pollution keeps increasing, it could eventually break down these soil systems and make them more fragile, something worth watching since healthy soil underpins the food we eat.
Microplastics (MPs) are pervasive soil pollutants, yet their impacts on the soil micro-food web comprising bacteria, fungi, and nematodes under realistic environmental conditions remain inadequately understood. This study integrates a large-scale field survey across the Pearl River Delta, Guangdong, China with a controlled microcosm experiment to assess the ecological consequences of current field MP accumulation and intensified environmental loading (from 0.01% to 1%). Field MP abundance ranged from 200 to 7,500 items kg -1 across the Pearl River Delta. Both field and microcosm results confirmed that MP exposure stimulated bacterial alpha diversity and altered community composition. While fungal and nematode communities exhibited weaker responses, structural equation modeling supported bacteria-driven bottom-up regulation in both field and microcosm systems. Functionally, both field surveys and microcosm studies showed that rising MP levels enhanced the predicted functional potential associated with fermentation and dark hydrogen oxidation. In the field, MP increased network complexity and within-trophic connectivity. Conversely, high MP levels (1%) in microcosms significantly reduced complexity and robustness. Our study identifies bacterial communities as universal MP indicators and reveals a critical divergence: current field levels were associated with some degree of community stimulation, whereas microcosm results warn of network simplification and increased vulnerability. Therefore, MP ecological risk assessments should consider the contrasting effects of long-term field accumulation and short-term high-concentration exposure.
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