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Response of soil property and microbial community to biodegradable microplastics, conventional microplastics and straw residue
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A four-month soil incubation experiment compared conventional polyethylene (PE) and biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA) microplastics, finding both alter soil organic carbon, nitrogen availability, enzyme activity, and microbial community composition — with PLA causing distinct effects due to its degradability. The finding that biodegradable plastics still significantly disrupt soil microbiology challenges assumptions about their environmental safety and suggests replacing conventional plastics with PLA does not eliminate ecological harm.
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This comprehensive review synthesizes evidence that microplastics alter soil physical structure, chemical properties including pH and nutrient cycling, and the communities of earthworms, collembolans, and microbes that maintain soil health, with cascading effects on plant growth and agricultural productivity. Because healthy soils underpin global food production, microplastic-driven degradation of soil ecosystems represents a long-term threat to food security and introduces a terrestrial route by which plastic contaminants accumulate in crops consumed by humans.
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