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Microplastic polymer type impacts water infiltration and its own transport in soil
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Researchers examined how different types of microplastics move through soil and affect water infiltration. They found that polypropylene, being more hydrophobic, impeded water flow more strongly than polyethylene terephthalate, while PET was more mobile in the soil column. The study suggests that a microplastic's surface properties and density play key roles in determining both how it travels through soil and how much it disrupts water movement.
Microplastics (MPs) pose a substantial threat to humans and ecosystems. How MPs move in soils is controlled by a large number of coupled parameters, including MPs and soil properties as well as hydrological and geochemical conditions. We conduct laboratory experiments where two commonly MPs types found in soils-polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polypropylene (PP)-are leached into an idealized soil analog (glass beads). We use time-lapse imaging to analyze the water flow pathways and spectroscopy to measure the MPs transport. We find that MPs impede water infiltration into preferential pathways, with a stronger effect for the more hydrophobic PP, and that PET is more mobile than PP. We explain this by the stronger impedance of PP on water flow that carries the MPs (the driving force), as well as PP surface charge enhancing its adsorption onto soil particles, and its lower density that limits downward transport. These findings advance our understanding the mechanisms underlying MP transport in soils.
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Microplastic polymer type impacts water infiltration and its own transport in soil
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Researchers measured saturated hydraulic conductivity in loam and sandy loam soils amended with PET, PVC, and PE microplastics of two size classes, finding that PET particles in sandy loam produced the highest conductivity values and that polymer hydrophobicity and particle size both influence soil water flow.
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Column experiments showed that different microplastic types (PE, PP, PVC) and particle sizes alter soil water infiltration in distinct and sometimes opposing ways, with effects depending on both polymer chemistry and particle dimensions. These findings are important for understanding how widespread microplastic soil contamination may disrupt agricultural hydrology and water management.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.