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The plastic underground – Exploring the mechanisms controlling the fate and transport of microplastics in the subsurface
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Researchers combined field sampling, laboratory experiments, and mathematical modelling to explore the mechanisms controlling microplastic entry, fate, and transport in the subsurface — including soils, riverbeds, sediments, and groundwater aquifers — identifying hotspots and activation mechanisms for subsurface MP contamination.
While there have been advances in understanding the above ground plastic cycle, there is still a substantial lack of understanding the sources and activation mechanisms of plastic pollution affecting the entry, fate, transport, transformation and impact of microplastics into soils, riverbeds, sediment and groundwater aquifers.We here present the initial outcomes of integrated field and laboratory analytical experimental approaches and mathematical modelling studies to provide mechanistic understanding of the overall magnitude as well as hot spots (and hot moments) of microplastic entry into subsurface ecosystems and their transport and transformation pathways. Our model results highlight that a large proportion (>95%) of all mismanaged plastic waste emitted since the 1950s is temporarily stored in river basins and able to enter subsurface ecosystems in the long-term. Using multi-scale modelling studies in combination with artificial river simulators (flumes) and laboratory column experiments we evidence that hyporheic exchange represents a preferential input mechanism for smaller and lighter microplastics into streambed sediments and underlying groundwater ecosystems. This finding maps directly onto field experimental findings from our global monitoring programmes which identified distinct hotspots of microplastic accumulation. Soil and streambed sediment columns were deployed to explore the controls on microplastic transport once they have entered the subsurface, highlighting that in particular intermittent pulsed hydraulic forcing increases the potential for fast particle transport.
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Microplastics transport in subsurface environments: Mechanisms and multi-scale modeling
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Tiny plastic particles are seeping through soil into groundwater—the same water many of us drink—and this review of existing research shows scientists still struggle to predict exactly how they move underground. Because these particles behave differently than the chemicals or germs we usually track in water, current safety models may miss how far and fast they travel, which matters since they can carry other pollutants along with them. Better tracking models, which the researchers propose building, could eventually help protect drinking water supplies from this hidden contamination.
The Plastic Underground: Are Microplastics in the Subsurface a Ticking Time Bomb for Soil and Groundwater Ecosystems?
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Researchers reviewed and investigated how microplastics enter subsurface environments through agricultural practices, irrigation, and streambed infiltration, finding critical knowledge gaps about plastic residence times and impacts on groundwater ecosystems and calling for urgent study of soils as long-term plastic sinks.
Microplastics in groundwater: a global analysis
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Researchers conducted a global groundwater sampling study to characterize microplastic contamination in aquifer systems worldwide, investigating transport mechanisms and fate of particles in anoxic subsurface environments where knowledge gaps remain despite extensive research on surface water systems.
Fate of Microplastics in Deep Gravel Riverbeds: Evidence for Direct Transfer from River Water to Groundwater
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Researchers tracked microplastic particles vertically through gravel riverbeds using depth-profile sampling, finding that MPs move directly from river water into subsurface gravel sediments and onward toward groundwater, documenting a pathway for plastic particles to enter drinking water aquifers.
Polymer-specific transfer and retention of microplastics at the river–sediment–groundwater interface
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Scientists studied how tiny plastic particles move from rivers into underground water that could become drinking water. They found that different types of plastics behave differently - some float and stay in rivers, while heavier plastics like those from bottles and pipes sink into riverbeds and can travel into groundwater supplies. This research is important because it helps us understand how microplastics might contaminate the underground water sources we rely on for drinking water.
Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.