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Biodegradable and Conventional Microplastics Differentially Affect Soil Nutrient Availability and Stress Responses in Spinach (Spinacia Oleracea L.)
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Researchers grew spinach in soils amended with biodegradable or conventional microplastics at varying concentrations and found both types pose risks: biodegradable MPs reduced biomass and leaf nutrient content, while conventional MPs triggered antioxidant stress responses and altered element availability, with effects scaling to higher application rates.
The mismanagement of agricultural mulches leads to the production of microplastics (MPs) impacting soil and plants. This research aimed to evaluate the potential alterations in the soil-plant system due to MPs in the soil, focusing on element availability, accumulation, translocation in spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.), and their effects on plant performance. Two types of MPs (bioplastic: B; conventional plastic: P) were added at different rates (0.5, 1, and 2% dry weight) in soils where spinach was grown in 35 mesocosms (5 as control and 5 for each rate of B and P-treatments). Soil samples were analyzed for pH, N, Corg, NH4+, SO42-, elements availability and their fate in spinach roots and leaves. The impact on soil was evaluated through microbial respiration (Resp), DNA yield, and eubacterial and fungal abundances. Spinach performance was assessed by photosynthetic activity, weight, length, leaf relative water content, specific leaf area, chlorophyll and carotenoid contents, and several stress responses (GAE, FRAP, HSP70, APX, GR, CAT). The findings showed only lower Resp in B-treated soils compared to controls. Element availability was significantly higher in 2%-P-treated soils and lower in B-treated soils than in controls. Spinach roots accumulated all investigated elements, but translocation varied per element. Spinach grown in soils with biodegradable MPs had reduced biomass and lower leaf C and N contents, whereas those in soils with conventional MPs exhibited physiological and biochemical alterations, increasing antioxidant activity in leaves. In conclusion, both types of MPs in soil pose a serious risk to plant and soil health.
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Microplastics from packaging and other plastic waste are building up in farm soils, and this study found that they can change soil quality and stress out crops like Chinese cabbage, altering nutrients, water content, and the plant's natural defense systems, especially at high concentrations. While this research looked at soil and plant health rather than testing the cabbage for human safety, it's a reminder that the plastic pollution we create doesn't just disappear, it may be quietly affecting the soil that grows our food.
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Researchers reviewed how microplastics, nanoplastics, and biodegradable plastic particles disrupt plant health and soil function in agroecosystems, finding that these contaminants impair nutrient uptake, photosynthesis, and redox balance while inducing oxidative stress, genotoxic effects, and soil property degradation with food safety implications.
Single and combined effects of secondary polyethylene microplastic on the growth of Pak choi and the soil microbiome composition
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Researchers found that secondary polyethylene microplastics (aged via weathering and mechanical stress) significantly inhibited Pak choi growth, caused oxidative damage to plant cells, and altered soil microbial composition, while showing antagonistic combined effects with DDT and naphthalene due to MP adsorption of co-contaminants. Agriculturally realistic aged PE microplastics harm food crops and disrupt the soil microbiome, with soil chemical properties changing in ways that could affect long-term agricultural productivity.
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A greenhouse study found that co-exposure of mung bean plants to ZnO nanoparticles and polyethylene or biodegradable PLA microplastics altered zinc uptake, root accumulation, and soil microbial community composition, with PE and PLA affecting different functional microbial guilds involved in carbon and nitrogen cycling. These interactions reveal that microplastics in agricultural soils do not act in isolation — they reshape the soil microbiome in ways that affect nutrient cycling and the transfer of potentially toxic metals into food crops.
Impact of microplastics on soil (physical and chemical) properties, soil biological properties/soil biota, and response of plants to it: a review
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This comprehensive review synthesizes evidence that microplastics alter soil physical structure, chemical properties including pH and nutrient cycling, and the communities of earthworms, collembolans, and microbes that maintain soil health, with cascading effects on plant growth and agricultural productivity. Because healthy soils underpin global food production, microplastic-driven degradation of soil ecosystems represents a long-term threat to food security and introduces a terrestrial route by which plastic contaminants accumulate in crops consumed by humans.
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