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Environmental Risk and Management of Microplastics in Soil
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This review examines microplastic contamination in soils, covering primary and secondary sources including plastic mulch, organic fertilizers, cosmetics, and tire wear, and assessing how microplastics alter soil physiochemical properties, nutrient cycling, and soil biota. The authors discuss environmental risk and management strategies for reducing microplastic impacts on terrestrial ecosystems.
Microplastic is an organic pollutant that poses an enormous threat to the global ecosystem due to the extensive use of microplastics in daily needs and poor handling. Microplastics are widely distributed into the soil and enter into it through primary (raw materials from industry, cosmetics products) and secondary (textile and tire wear) sources and other sources such as plastic mulching, employing organic fertilizer. Microplastics accumulate several harmful chemicals such as persistent organic pollutants, which may contaminate the soil and amplify the damage caused by microplastic to soil organisms. Microplastics are also affecting the soil's physiochemical properties such as soil structure and nutrient cycling, soil biota and terrestrial ecosystem. All these effects depend on the plastics' polymer types, shape and size. Microplastic particles migrate into the soil through abiotic and biotic processes like bioturbation, leaching and farming activities. Microplastic is easily identified from the soil by employing several analytical techniques. This chapter highlights the sources, fate, abundance, identification and risk of microplastics within soil biota.
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Soil Environment Pollution with Microplastic, Influence Factors and Environmental Risks
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This review synthesizes research on microplastic contamination of soil environments, covering the major sources of soil microplastics, factors influencing their accumulation and distribution, and the environmental risks they pose to terrestrial ecosystems and agriculture.
A review of microplastics in the soil environment
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This review summarizes the current state of knowledge about microplastic contamination in soil environments, covering sources, distribution, and effects on soil organisms and ecosystems. The study highlights that while aquatic microplastic research is more advanced, soil contamination poses significant but understudied risks to terrestrial ecosystems and food production.
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This review examines the sources, transport, degradation, and ecological impacts of microplastic contamination in soil environments. The study suggests that soil acts as both a major sink for microplastics and a conduit transporting them to aquatic systems, and that microplastics can negatively affect soil organisms and biogeochemistry, underscoring the need for more research on terrestrial microplastic pollution.
Effects of microplastics on soil physical, chemical and biological properties
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This review examines how microplastics affect soil health, covering their impact on the physical structure, chemical composition, and biological communities of soil ecosystems. Microplastics can alter soil water retention, change nutrient cycling, and harm soil organisms from earthworms to microbes. Since agricultural soils are a major reservoir of microplastics, these changes could affect crop growth and food quality, creating an indirect pathway for microplastic-related harm to human health.
Source, migration and toxicology of microplastics in soil
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This review compiles research on the sources, movement, and toxic effects of microplastics in soil ecosystems, an area that has received less attention than aquatic pollution. Researchers describe how microplastics enter soil through agricultural practices, wastewater, and atmospheric deposition, then transfer through food chains to affect organisms at multiple levels. The study identifies major knowledge gaps and proposes management strategies to mitigate the ecological and human health risks of soil microplastic contamination.
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