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How Natural Phenomena and Disasters Together with the Weathering Conditions Affect Microplastics and Nanoplastics in Agricultural Soils and in Farmlands
Summary
This review examines how natural events — weathering, flooding, wind erosion, and extreme weather — interact with plastic waste to mobilize and spread microplastics through agricultural soils. As climate change increases the frequency of such events, the contamination of farmland and food crops with microplastics is likely to worsen, with downstream consequences for food safety and soil health.
Concern over microplastics (MPs) in the environment is rising. Microplastics are generally known to exist in aquatic settings, but less is known about their occurrence in soil ecosystems. When plastic waste builds up in agricultural areas, it can have a negative impact on the environment and food sources, as well as have an indirect effect on all trophic levels of the food chain. This paper addresses the relationship between microplastics and the management of plastic waste, which contributes to their accumulation, and it describes the sources and primarily the movement processes of microplastics in agricultural soils as a result of natural events. Evaluating the impact of weather on coastal microplastic contamination is critical, as extreme weather events have become more frequent in recent years. This study sheds light on how weather patterns affect the dispersion of plastic waste in terrestrial habitats, including the impacts of seasonality and extreme weather. According to our data, typhoons, monsoons, rainfall, and floods all contribute significantly more microplastics to the surface sediment through surface runoff and wind transport, particle redistribution caused by agitated waves, and fragmentation under intense abrasion forces. Severe weather conditions have the potential to disperse larger and more varied kinds of microplastics.