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Microplastics in terrestrial ecosystem: Exploring the menace to the soil-plant-microbe interactions
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This review summarizes existing research on how microplastics affect the complex relationships between soil, plants, and soil microbes. Microplastics alter soil structure, change the makeup of microbial communities, and disrupt beneficial partnerships between plants and helpful fungi and bacteria. These disruptions can reduce plant growth and nutrient cycling, which could ultimately affect crop yields and the quality of food produced on microplastic-contaminated farmland.
Microplastics (MPs), miniscule plastic particles measuring less than 5 mm in size, have become a concern in terrestrial ecosystems, with primarily agricultural and wetland soils being the soils with highest plastic loadings. The adverse effect of MPs might lead to changes in physicochemical and biological characteristics of soil including soil properties, microbial communities, plants, as well as the potential or affirmed correlations among them. Therefore, understanding the risks and effects of MPs, particularly within the soil-plant-microbe context is challenging and have become a subject of substantial scientific inquiry. This comprehensive review is focused on the effects of MPs on the rhizosphere and plant-microbe symbiotic relationships, with implications for plant growth and ecosystem-level nutrient fluxes. MPs alter soil physicochemical properties, microbial community composition, and enzymatic activities in the rhizosphere, influencing nutrient availability and uptake by plants. These changes in the rhizosphere can disrupt plant-microbe symbiotic interactions, such as mycorrhizal associations and nitrogen-fixing symbioses, ultimately impacting plant growth and the cycling of nutrients within ecosystems. Furthermore, we elaborate on the effects of MPs on the rhizosphere and plant-microbe symbiotic relationships carrying implications for plant growth and ecosystem-level nutrient fluxes. Future research directions and solutions to the microplastics menace acknowledging combined effects of MPs and other contaminants, advanced technologies for MPs identification and quantification, and microbial engineering for MPs remediation. This knowledge of MPs-induced impacts on soil-plant-microbe interactions is essential to generate mitigating actions in soil environmental management and conservation.
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This review synthesized evidence on how microplastics affect farmland soils and crops, examining changes to soil structure, microbial communities, and plant health. The authors document that MPs can enter root systems, alter nutrient uptake, and disrupt soil ecology, with implications for food safety and agricultural productivity.
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This review examines how microplastics affect soil microbial communities and plant systems in agricultural settings, documenting impacts on soil health, microbial diversity, and crop physiology. As microplastics accumulate in farmland soils through irrigation, sludge application, and plastic mulches, their effects on the soil ecosystem that underpins food production are a growing concern.
Impacts of microplastics on terrestrial plants: A critical review
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This review examines how microplastics affect land-based plants, finding that they can alter soil structure, disrupt beneficial soil microbes, and reduce plant growth. Microplastics also carry toxic chemicals like plasticizers and heavy metals that can be taken up by plant roots and enter the food chain. The findings raise concerns about human health since contaminated crops could be a hidden source of microplastic and chemical exposure in our diets.
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