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Microplastic contamination in cotton soils following long-term mulching: A field study for the Xinjiang production and construction corps in China
Summary
Researchers investigated microplastic accumulation across agricultural soils in Xinjiang, China — a major mulch film use region — finding that microplastic abundance positively correlates with mulching duration and that geographical and social factors drive north-south differences in contamination levels.
• MPs abundance generally positively correlates with the duration of mulching film use. • Geographical factors determine the main differences of microplastics in the North and South of Xinjiang. • Social factors significantly affect the abundance of microplastics in regions. Long-term (≥15 years) plastic mulching in agriculture has created significant microplastics (MPs) pollution in global soils, yet the spatio-temporal dynamics of MPs in arid agroecosystems remain poorly understood. This study investigated MP accumulation across a major mulch film use region—Xinjiang, China—by analyzing soils from 22 sites across six divisions. Our results revealed substantial MP pollution, with abundance ranging from 120 ± 14.14 to 4220 ± 551.54 items/kg. MP abundance showed a strong positive correlation with mulching duration, supported by Pearson correlation coefficients (r) ranging from 0.881 to 0.998 across five divisions (all p < 0.001). After 30 years of mulching, northern Xinjiang exhibited an average MP abundance of 3890 items/kg, which was 2.58 times that of the southern Xinjiang (1509.67 items/kg) (t=9.956 p < 0.01). Film-shaped MPs dominated overall (75.8%), though their prevalence was higher in northern regions, whereas fiber-shaped MPs were relatively enriched in the south, likely due to precipitation-driven transport. Smaller MPs (<1000 μm) predominated, accounting for 79.25% of all particles, with a greater proportion of <500 μm MPs in southern Xinjiang (56.06% vs. 40.25% in the north), suggesting accelerated fragmentation under warmer and more irradiated conditions. Both agricultural film consumption (r = 0.785, p = 0.021) and population density (r = 0.635) correlated with MP distribution, highlighting intertwined agricultural and socioeconomic drivers. This study provides the first comprehensive regional-scale quantification of MP patterns in arid croplands, offering empirical evidence to guide targeted pollution control policies in Xinjiang and other plastic-intensive arid regions worldwide.