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How Soil Invertebrates Deal With Microplastic Contamination
Summary
This accessible review explains how different types of soil invertebrates — including earthworms, springtails, and mites — encounter and respond to microplastic contamination in soils. It highlights how these tiny animals, which are vital for nutrient cycling and soil health, are affected by the growing presence of plastic particles in terrestrial ecosystems.
Small animals living in soils, called soil invertebrates, represent a very diverse group of soil inhabitants. They include earthworms, woodlice, spiders, springtails, mites, and some insects. Soil invertebrates feed on dead plants, on fungi and bacteria, or on other soil invertebrates. The many ways soil invertebrates interact with each other, and the large number of different species, make life in soils complex and difficult to understand. Unfortunately, soil invertebrates have been dealing with soil pollution, including contamination with tiny particles of plastic called microplastics for decades now. But are microplastics harmful to these organisms? Can microplastics be passed between soil invertebrates when one feeds on another? Most questions about microplastics and soil invertebrates have been investigated using earthworms, but a few studies on others, like springtails, mites, and nematodes, also exist. In this article, we summarize the effects of microplastics on soil invertebrates.