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Are microplastics destabilizing the global network of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem services?
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This review assessed how microplastics and nanoplastics disrupt terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem services — including soil fertility, water filtration, and food production — arguing that the cumulative impacts across global ecosystems may destabilize the network of services on which human society depends.
Plastic has created a new man-made ecosystem called plastisphere. The plastic pieces including microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) have emerged as a global concern due to their omnipresence in ecosystems and their ability to interact with the biological systems. Nevertheless, the long-term impacts of MPs on biotic and abiotic resources are not completely understood, and existing evidence suggests that MPs are hazardous to various keystones species of the global biomes. MP-contaminated ecosystems show reduced floral and faunal biomass, productivity, nitrogen cycling, oxygen-generation and carbon sequestration, suggesting that MPs have already started affecting ecological biomes. However, not much is known about the influence of MPs towards the ecosystem services (ESs) cascade and its correlation with the biodiversity loss. MPs are perceived as a menace to the global ecosystems, but their possible impacts on the provisional, regulatory, and socio-economic ESs have not been extensively studied. This review investigates not only the potentiality of MPs to perturb the functioning of terrestrial and aquatic biomes, but also the associated social, ecological and economic repercussions. The possible long-term fluxes in the ES network of terrestrial and aquatic niches are also discussed.
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Micro- and nanoplastics in soil: Linking sources to damage on soil ecosystem services in life cycle assessment
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This review examines how micro and nanoplastics in soil damage the services that soil ecosystems provide, such as growing food, filtering water, and cycling nutrients. The plastics enter soil through wastewater, urban runoff, and breakdown of larger plastic debris, where they cause physical harm, chemical toxicity, and help other pollutants accumulate in organisms. The authors propose a framework for measuring this damage, which could help policymakers understand the true environmental cost of plastic pollution.
Spatial Risks ofMicroplastics in Soils and the CascadingEffects Thereof
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This review mapped the spatial risks of microplastic contamination in global soils, examining how climate, land use, and human activities distribute MP pollution and analyzing cascading effects on soil ecology, carbon cycling, and ecosystem services.
Micro and nanoplastics pollution: A review on global concern and its impacts on ecosystems
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This review summarizes the current understanding of micro and nanoplastic pollution globally, covering their sources, movement through ecosystems, and risks to both environmental and human health. The evidence shows that these tiny particles alter soil and sediment properties, disrupt nutrient cycles, and pose potential climate hazards. The authors emphasize that more research is needed on how microplastics move through food chains and affect human health, particularly through contaminated food and water.
Microplastics and nanoplastics: would they affect global biodiversity change?
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This review examined how the ubiquitous distribution of micro- and nanoplastics and their demonstrated effects on individual organisms could translate to global biodiversity changes, identifying threats to ecosystems through direct toxicity, food web disruption, and habitat alteration. The authors call for new research approaches that link individual-level microplastic effects to population and ecosystem-level biodiversity impacts.
A global review on the abundance and threats of microplastics in soils to terrestrial ecosystem and human health
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This review examines microplastic pollution levels across agricultural, roadside, urban, and landfill soils worldwide, finding wide variation but consistent contamination. Microplastics alter soil pH, density, and water movement, disrupt microbial communities, inhibit plant growth, and affect soil animals. For humans, the concern is that microplastics in soil can enter the food chain through crops and contaminated water.
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