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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.
Abstract Microplastic (MP) pollution is an important environmental problem owing to its widespread use, long residence time, and overall persistence. MPs threaten the health of humans, animals, and plants. However, studies on the effects of MPs on terrestrial plants are less common compared to those conducted in aquatic systems. This review discusses the sources of MPs in terrestrial ecosystems, their effects on C and N cycling in soils, and the impact of MPs on terrestrial plants, and focuses on plant growth and the potential risks to human health. MPs affect plants and their performance by altering soil structure, microbial activity, nutrient immobilization, transporting contaminants, and causing direct toxicity. Chemicals, such as plasticizers, additives, and colorants, in MPs may negatively affect ecosystems and their inhabitants, and MPs may interact with a wide array of pollutants, including pesticides, heavy metals, and antibiotics. These impacts vary as a function of soil type, plant species, and MP type. Future research efforts should focus on interaction complexity, uptake mechanisms, and impacts on plants at multiple spatiotemporal scales, while concurrently considering their effects on food chains and human health.
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This review summarizes what is known about how microplastics interact with terrestrial plants, including how they are taken up, transported through plant tissues, and affect growth and agricultural productivity. Researchers note that while marine microplastic research is extensive, studies on soil ecosystems and crop impacts remain limited. The study highlights the need for more research on how microplastics in agricultural soils may ultimately affect food safety and human health.
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.
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This review examined how plants take up and accumulate microplastics from contaminated soil, finding that plastics can disrupt soil microbial communities, reduce nutrient availability, and impair plant growth. The uptake of microplastics by edible crops raises concerns about food chain transfer to humans, since the particles can carry toxic pollutants like persistent organic compounds and heavy metals.
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