Soil organic matter facilitates the transport of microplastic by reducing surface hydrophobicity

Effects of Soil Components on Microplastics Transport and Retention in Natural Soils: Various Microplastics Types and Sizes

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Column transport experiments across desert, red, and black soils showed that microplastic mobility decreases with increasing particle size and that metal oxide-rich red soils nearly completely retained MPs, while natural organic matter in black soils created non-monotonic transport patterns. Understanding how soil composition governs microplastic movement is essential for predicting where MPs accumulate in agricultural soils and groundwater systems used for food production and drinking water.

Micro- and Nanoplastics as Carriers for Other Soil Pollutants

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Researchers reviewed how microplastics in soil serve as vectors for co-transport of other pollutants — including heavy metals, pesticides, and antibiotics — with annual terrestrial plastic releases estimated at 4–23 times those entering the marine environment. This carrier effect means soil microplastic contamination amplifies the bioavailability and toxicity of co-occurring chemical pollutants, compounding risks to soil organisms, crops, and ultimately human consumers.

Insights on experimental methodologies and theoretical models for microplastics transport in soils and sediments based on meta-analysis

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"A meta-analysis of experimental methods and mathematical models for microplastic transport in soils found that available experiments mainly simulate shallow beach sand, leaving transport in agricultural soils, sediments, and landfill liners largely unstudied, and that a dual-site advection-dispersion model best fits existing data. Accurate transport models are essential for predicting how microplastics migrate toward groundwater and food crops, which directly informs human exposure risk assessment."

Review of microplastics in soils: state-of-the-art occurrence, transport, and investigation methods

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This review synthesizes sampling, pretreatment, and analytical methods for detecting microplastics in soil environments, noting that research has largely focused on contamination levels rather than behavioral dynamics and ecological impacts. The authors call for standardized testing protocols and predictive behavior models as microplastic accumulation in agricultural soils increasingly threatens food safety and ecosystem health.

Microplastics affect key soil functions – water, carbon and nutrient storage – and soil microbiota via interactions between plastic degradability and soil aggregation