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Co-occurrence of multiple contaminants: Unentangling adsorption behaviour in agricultural soils

Environmental Pollution 2025 6 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 63 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.

Xiaomei Yang, Darrell W.S. Tang, Gaowei Tan, Xiaomei Yang, Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Gaowei Tan, Gaowei Tan, Hongyu Mu, Gaowei Tan, Gaowei Tan, Gaowei Tan, Xiaomei Yang, Darrell W.S. Tang, Xiaomei Yang, Darrell W.S. Tang, Xiaomei Yang, Xiaomei Yang, Darrell W.S. Tang, Xiaomei Yang, Vera Silva, Darrell W.S. Tang, Xiaomei Yang, Darrell W.S. Tang, Xiaomei Yang, Xiaomei Yang, Xiaomei Yang, Xiaomei Yang, Xiaomei Yang, Darrell W.S. Tang, Xiaomei Yang, Xiaomei Yang, Xiaomei Yang, Xiaomei Yang, Xiaomei Yang, Xiaomei Yang, Vera Silva, Xiaomei Yang, Xiaomei Yang, Xiaomei Yang, Xiaomei Yang, Xiaomei Yang, Xiaomei Yang, Darrell W.S. Tang, Darrell W.S. Tang, Darrell W.S. Tang, Darrell W.S. Tang, Gaowei Tan, Darrell W.S. Tang, Hongyu Mu, Xiaomei Yang, Vera Silva, Violette Geissen Gaowei Tan, Vera Silva, Xiaomei Yang, Violette Geissen Xiaomei Yang, Xiaomei Yang, Xiaomei Yang, Xiaomei Yang, Darrell W.S. Tang, Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Vera Silva, Hongyu Mu, Hongyu Mu, Shijie Qin, Shijie Qin, Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Shijie Qin, Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Shijie Qin, Shijie Qin, Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Xiaomei Yang, Violette Geissen Shijie Qin, Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Xiaomei Yang, Darrell W.S. Tang, Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Darrell W.S. Tang, Violette Geissen Osman Rima, Xiaomei Yang, Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Darrell W.S. Tang, Violette Geissen Xiaomei Yang, Xiaomei Yang, Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Xiaomei Yang, Osman Rima, Vera Silva, Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Xiaomei Yang, Xiaomei Yang, Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Xiaomei Yang, Violette Geissen Xiaomei Yang, Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Xiaomei Yang, Xiaomei Yang, Xiaomei Yang, Violette Geissen Xiaomei Yang, Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Darrell W.S. Tang, Violette Geissen Xiaomei Yang, Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Xiaomei Yang, Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen Violette Geissen

Summary

This study examined how microplastics in agricultural soil interact with pesticides and pharmaceutical compounds, finding that microplastics increased pesticide absorption by 120-730% in some soils. This means microplastics can concentrate pesticides in soil, potentially creating toxic hotspots. The findings are important for food safety because crops grown in soil contaminated with both microplastics and pesticides may be exposed to higher levels of chemicals than expected.

The co-occurrence of pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and MPs has resulted in combined toxicity and high risks to ecosystems and human health. However, understanding on the interactions among co-occurring pollutants in soils remains limited. This study focused on adsorption behaviour of a pesticide mixture (chlorpyrifos (CPF), pendimethalin (PDM) and pyraclostrobin (PCS)) in three soils (sandy soil (S1), loamy soil (S2), and silt soil (S3)) to examine the absorption behaviour of pesticides in the presence of the pharmaceutical compound albendazole (ALB) and starch-based microplastics (MPs). The results showed that ALB significantly decreased (p < 0.05) the adsorption of CPF, PDM, and PCS by 29 %-41 % in S1. The adsorption of CPF (+20 %) and PCS (+101 %) in S2 were significantly enhanced but PDM (-22 %) adsorption was inhibited by ALB. ALB also significantly (p < 0.05) promoted CPF and PCS adsorption in S3 by 39 % and 120 %, respectively, but did not change PDM adsorption. In soil-MP matrices, ALB significantly reduced the adsorption of CPF (-25 %), PDM (-26 %), and PCS (-21 %) in the S1-MP matrix, but no significant change in the S2 and S3-MP matrices was observed. Moreover, MPs significantly (p < 0.05) increased the adsorption of the pesticide mixture by 120-730 %, but reduced ALB adsorption by 11-24 % in soils. Further, regardless of ALB presence, correlation analysis suggested that K<sub>d</sub> of pesticides showed positive correlations (p < 0.01) to soil organic matter, specific surface area, and clay content in soil matrices without MP-contamination, while no significant positive correlation between K<sub>d</sub> of pesticides and soil properties was observed in soil-MPs matrices. This study indicates that co-occurring pollutants could alter the adsorption behaviour of pesticides in soil and thereby affect their bioavailability and mobility in the soil ecosystem. Further study is urgently needed to assess the ecotoxicity of co-occurring multi-contaminants, as well as their potential transport to other environmental compartments.

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