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Soil contamination in nearby natural areas mirrors that in urban greenspaces worldwide
Summary
A global study found that soil contamination in natural areas is just as bad as in nearby urban green spaces, with similar levels of heavy metals, pesticides, microplastics, and antibiotic resistance genes. Human activity was the main driver of contamination regardless of whether the area was urban or natural. The findings show that microplastic pollution and other contaminants have spread far beyond cities, potentially affecting soil health and the food grown in these areas.
Soil contamination is one of the main threats to ecosystem health and sustainability. Yet little is known about the extent to which soil contaminants differ between urban greenspaces and natural ecosystems. Here we show that urban greenspaces and adjacent natural areas (i.e., natural/semi-natural ecosystems) shared similar levels of multiple soil contaminants (metal(loid)s, pesticides, microplastics, and antibiotic resistance genes) across the globe. We reveal that human influence explained many forms of soil contamination worldwide. Socio-economic factors were integral to explaining the occurrence of soil contaminants worldwide. We further show that increased levels of multiple soil contaminants were linked with changes in microbial traits including genes associated with environmental stress resistance, nutrient cycling, and pathogenesis. Taken together, our work demonstrates that human-driven soil contamination in nearby natural areas mirrors that in urban greenspaces globally, and highlights that soil contaminants have the potential to cause dire consequences for ecosystem sustainability and human wellbeing.