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The Occurrence and Characteristics of Microplastic Pollution in the Agricultural Soils of Anhui Province, in Eastern China
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Researchers measured microplastic concentrations in agricultural soils across Anhui Province, China, finding levels of 660–17,660 particles/kg dry soil, with fibers and films dominating and concentration influenced by geographic location and crop type. This widespread contamination of farmland soils raises concerns about microplastics entering food crops and eventually the human diet through vegetable and grain production.
Recently, the environmental microplastic pollution has aroused wide interdisciplinary attentions. However, the occurrence of microplastics in agricultural soils is rarely understood, especially in eastern China. In this work, the occurrence and characteristic property of microplastics in agricultural soils in Anhui province, which is situated in eastern China, was investigated for the first time according to the density separation and filtration method. The concentration of microplastic in agricultural soils varied from 0.66 to 17.66 (103 kg−1 dry soil), and the fiber (~ 55.1%), film (~ 34.7%) were the main types in farmland soils. In addition, the small size (250 ~ 500 µm) was the dominant size of microplastics in agricultural soils in Anhui province. The concentration of microplastics was closely related to geographical location and planting patterns. Meanwhile, the types of microplastics were polystyrene (PS), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and high-density polyethylene (HDPE). Finally, the environmental risk of microplastics in farmland soil in Anhui Province was evaluated. The overall risk index of farmland soil microplastics in Anhui Province was less than 1000, and the content of soil microplastics was high, but the overall risk level was low.
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