We can't find the internet
Attempting to reconnect
Something went wrong!
Hang in there while we get back on track
Number and dissimilarity of global change factors influences soil properties and functions
AI summary Read the abstract
Researchers investigated how multiple environmental stressors, including microplastics, climate change, and chemical pollution, affect soil health when they act together. The study found that the more different the stressors are in how they work, the more they amplify each other's harmful effects on important soil functions like decomposition and enzyme activity.
Soil biota and functions are impacted by various anthropogenic stressors, including climate change, chemical pollution or microplastics. These stressors do not occur in isolation, and soil properties and functions appear to be directionally driven by the number of global change factors acting simultaneously. Building on this insight, we here hypothesize that co-acting factors with more diverse effect mechanisms, or higher dissimilarity, have greater impacts on soil properties and functions. We created a factor pool of 12 factors and calculated dissimilarity indices of randomly-chosen co-acting factors based on the measured responses of soil properties and functions to the single factors. Results show that not only was the number of factors important, but factor dissimilarity was also key for predicting factor joint effects. By analyzing deviations of soil properties and functions from three null model predictions, we demonstrate that higher factor dissimilarity and a larger number of factors could drive larger deviations from null models and trigger more frequent occurrence of synergistic factor net interactions on soil functions (decomposition rate, cellulase, and β-glucosidase activity), which provides mechanistic insights for understanding high-dimensional effects of factors. Our work highlights the importance of considering factor similarity in future research on interacting factors.
More Papers Like This
Global change factors differ in effect when acting alone and in a multi-factor background
AI summary Read the abstract
A subtractive experimental design in urban soils found that removing individual global change stressors — including microplastics — from a multi-factor background generally improved soil properties and biological processes, and that the combined effects of stressors often differed from what any single factor would predict alone. This is important for understanding microplastic impacts in real-world soils, where plastic pollution rarely occurs in isolation from other stressors like heat, drought, and chemical contamination.
Soil microbial responses to multiple global change factors as assessed by metagenomics
AI summary Read the abstract
Researchers applied ten different environmental stressors, including microplastics, to soil samples and found that combinations of multiple stressors produced microbial communities completely different from any single stressor alone. The combined treatments promoted potentially harmful mycobacteria and bacteria carrying high levels of antibiotic resistance genes. This matters for human health because changes in soil microbes can affect food safety, antibiotic effectiveness, and the spread of pathogens.
Effects of Microplastics and Drought on Ecosystem Functions and Multifunctionality
AI summary Read the abstract
Researchers found that microplastics in soil reduced several ecosystem functions including litter decomposition, nutrient cycling, and soil aggregate stability, and that drought further amplified these negative effects. The interaction between microplastic pollution and drought is especially concerning given increasing climate extremes.
Global change factors differ in effect when acting alone and in a multi-factor background
AI summary Read the abstract
An urban soil experiment using a subtractive design (removing individual stressors from a multi-stressor scenario including microplastics, heat, road salt, drought, nitrogen, and surfactants) found that combined stressors produce very different — often worse — effects than any single stressor causes alone. For microplastic research, the key implication is that lab studies testing microplastics in isolation likely underestimate real-world harms, because in urban soils microplastics always co-occur with multiple other stressors.
Effects of microplastics and drought on soil ecosystem functions and multifunctionality
AI summary Read the abstract
Researchers tested how microplastic fibers and drought conditions interact to affect soil ecosystem functions in grassland plant communities. The study found that the combination of microplastics and drought negatively impacted nutrient cycling enzymes, soil respiration, and overall ecosystem multifunctionality, suggesting that microplastics may worsen the well-known damaging effects of drought on soil systems.
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.