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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Earthworm-microbiome interactions: Unlocking next-generation bioindicators and bioengineered solutions for soil and environmental health
ClearSoil and Sediment Organisms as Bioindicators of Pollution
This review examines how soil organisms like earthworms, insects, and microbes can serve as living indicators of pollution, including contamination from microplastics and heavy metals. Changes in these organisms' behavior, reproduction, or survival can reveal pollution levels that chemical tests alone might miss. The approach is relevant to microplastic research because it provides practical tools for assessing how microplastic contamination in soil affects the ecosystems that support agriculture and food production.
A review on effective soil health bio-indicators for ecosystem restoration and sustainability
This review examines biological indicators that scientists use to measure soil health, including microbial diversity, enzyme activity, and earthworm populations. Healthy soil ecosystems depend on these biological components, which can be disrupted by pollutants including microplastics. The review is relevant because bio-indicators could serve as early warning tools for detecting the impact of microplastic contamination on agricultural soil quality.
Earthworms As An Emerging Biotechnological Intervention in the Mitigation of Microplastics
This review explores the emerging role of earthworms as biological agents for degrading microplastics in soil environments. Researchers found that earthworm gut microflora and mucous secretions actively contribute to breaking down plastic polymers through enzymatic depolymerization. The study suggests that earthworm-mediated biodegradation could be a promising biotechnological approach for mitigating microplastic contamination in terrestrial ecosystems.
Bioindicators of the impacts by microplastics in soil: A Systematic Review : a systematic review
This systematic review identifies organisms that can serve as bioindicators — living warning signs — for microplastic contamination in soil. Certain earthworms, springtails, and other soil creatures show measurable changes when exposed to microplastics, making them useful tools for monitoring pollution levels. Using these natural indicators could help farmers and environmental managers detect microplastic problems before they worsen.
Microplastic-Earthworm Interactions: A Critical Review
This critical review examines how microplastics from diverse plastic waste categories accumulate in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and interact with earthworms, a key soil organism. The authors synthesize evidence on the deleterious effects of increasing microplastic concentrations on soil properties, microbiota, and earthworm physiology.
Microplastics in Agricultural Soil: Fate, Impacts, and Bioremediation by Earthworms
This review examines how microplastics accumulate in agricultural soils and the role earthworms may play in breaking them down. Researchers found that microplastics can harm soil health by disrupting microbial communities, enzyme activity, and nutrient availability, but that earthworms can enhance microplastic degradation through their digestive processes and the microorganisms in their gut. The study suggests that earthworm-based bioremediation could be a practical strategy for reducing microplastic contamination in farmland.
The effects of high-density polyethylene and polypropylene microplastics on the soil and earthworm Metaphire guillelmi gut microbiota
Researchers exposed earthworms to soil amended with high-density polyethylene and polypropylene microplastics for 28 days and examined changes in both the earthworm gut and soil microbial communities. They found that both types of microplastics significantly altered the composition and diversity of gut bacteria in the earthworms. The study suggests that microplastic contamination in soil can disrupt the gut microbiota of soil organisms, with potential consequences for soil ecosystem health.
Earthworms alleviate microplastics stress on soil microbial and protist communities
Researchers found that earthworms can help alleviate the negative effects of microplastic pollution on soil microbial and protist communities. In microcosm experiments, soils with earthworms showed more resilient bacterial, fungal, and protist communities when exposed to both conventional and biodegradable microplastics. The study suggests that soil macrofauna play an important role in buffering ecosystems against the disruptive effects of microplastic contamination.
Earthworms Significantly Alter the Composition, Diversity, Abundance and Pathogen Load of Fungal Communities in Sewage Sludge from Different Urban Wastewater Treatment Plants
Earthworms exposed to microplastic-contaminated soil were found to significantly alter the composition, diversity, and abundance of potentially pathogenic soil bacteria, suggesting that earthworm bioturbation in MP-contaminated soils may have unintended effects on soil microbiome health.
Microplastics in Motion: How Earthworm Guts Become Microbial Gateways through Plastic Surface Dynamics
This study tracked how microplastics move through earthworm digestive systems and found that the gut environment alters the microbial communities colonizing plastic surfaces, potentially transforming earthworms into vectors that spread plastic-associated microbes through soil ecosystems.
Current Research Trends on the Effects of Microplastics in Soil Environment Using Earthworms: Mini-Review
This mini-review summarizes current research on how microplastics affect earthworms in soil environments, covering effects on growth, reproduction, gut microbiota, and soil physicochemical properties.
Earthworms Exposed to Polyethylene and Biodegradable Microplastics in Soil: Microplastic Characterization and Microbial Community Analysis
Researchers exposed earthworms to biodegradable and conventional polyethylene microplastics in natural soil and found that worms ingested both types. The biodegradable plastic showed signs of partial breakdown in the earthworm gut, while conventional polyethylene remained unchanged. Although microplastics did not significantly alter the soil or gut microbiome in this study, the results confirm that earthworms transport microplastics through soil ecosystems.
Current research trends on plastic pollution and ecological impacts on the soil ecosystem: A review
This review examines the current state of research on plastic pollution in soil ecosystems, an area that has received far less attention than marine plastic contamination. Researchers found that agricultural practices, sewage sludge application, and plastic mulch use are major sources of soil microplastic pollution, with earthworms being the most commonly studied organisms for assessing ecological impacts. The study calls for more research into how microplastics affect soil biodiversity, nutrient cycling, and long-term soil health.
A Systematic Review on Earthworms in Soil Bioremediation
This systematic review found that earthworm-based bioremediation (vermiremediation), alone or combined with phytoremediation and bioaugmentation, effectively reduces soil contamination from heavy metals, pesticides, and hydrocarbons. The research is relevant to microplastics because earthworms interact extensively with soil microplastics, potentially fragmenting them further while also being harmed by plastic particle ingestion.
Decay of low-density polyethylene by bacteria extracted from earthworm's guts: A potential for soil restoration
Researchers isolated bacteria from earthworm guts that were able to degrade low-density polyethylene, demonstrating that intestinal microbes from soil invertebrates may play a role in plastic breakdown. The findings suggest that earthworm gut microbiomes are a reservoir of plastic-degrading bacteria with potential applications for bioremediation of LDPE-contaminated soils.
Current research trends on plastic pollution and ecological impacts on the soil ecosystem: A review
This review examined plastic pollution in soil ecosystems, covering sources including sewage sludge, plastic mulch, and stormwater runoff, and the effects on soil structure, microbial communities, and earthworms. Microplastics in soil are a growing concern because farmland soils represent a major global reservoir of environmental plastic contamination.
The soil nematode exposome: Unraveling the impacts of particulate plastics from agroecosystems to one health
Researchers propose using soil nematodes — tiny worms that are sensitive indicators of soil health — as biological sentinels for microplastic pollution, arguing that their conserved molecular pathways and ecological roles make them ideal for an integrated risk framework that connects plastic contamination in soil to broader human health outcomes.
Microbial metabolism in wormcast affected the perturbation on soil organic matter by microplastics under decabromodiphenyl ethane stress
Researchers examined how microplastics combined with a brominated flame retardant affect soil health through earthworm activity. They found that microplastics altered the microbial communities in earthworm castings, which in turn changed how soil organic matter was processed. The study suggests that co-pollution from microplastics and flame retardants can disrupt important soil ecosystem functions that depend on earthworm-microbe interactions.
Microplastics exert minor influence on bacterial community succession during the aging of earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) casts
Researchers exposed earthworms to three types of microplastics commonly used in agricultural films and found that while microplastics altered some soil chemistry during gut passage, they had only minor effects on the overall bacterial communities in earthworm castings over 180 days. This suggests that earthworm gut microbiomes may be resilient enough to buffer the impact of agricultural microplastic contamination under the conditions tested.
Effect of microplastic pollution on the gut microbiome of anecic and endogeic earthworms
Researchers investigated how low-density polyethylene microplastic pollution affects the gut microbiome of two types of earthworms with different burrowing lifestyles. They found that microplastics altered the relative abundance of several bacterial groups in both species, with deeper-burrowing anecic earthworms showing more pronounced effects and reduced survival. The study suggests that microplastic contamination in soil may disrupt the gut microbial communities of earthworms, with impacts varying by species and ecological behavior.
Adverse effects of microplastics on earthworms: A critical review
This critical review of 65 publications summarized the adverse effects of microplastics on earthworms, finding impacts on growth, behavior, oxidative stress, gene expression, and gut microbiota, with particle size, concentration, and co-occurring pollutants influencing toxicity outcomes.
Accumulation of microplastics and Tcep pollutants in agricultural soil: Exploring the links between metabolites and gut microbiota in earthworm homeostasis
Researchers investigated the co-occurrence of polyethylene microplastics and the flame retardant TCEP in agricultural soils and their combined effects on earthworm health. The study found that co-exposure disrupted earthworm gut microbiota and metabolic homeostasis, suggesting that the interaction between microplastics and chemical additives in agricultural soil may pose greater ecological risks than either contaminant alone.
Ecological adaptation of earthworms for coping with plant polyphenols, heavy metals, and microplastics in the soil: A review
This review examines how earthworms cope with and help remediate soil pollutants including heavy metals, microplastics, and plant polyphenols. Researchers describe how earthworms use specialized gut metabolites and elevated antioxidant enzyme activity to neutralize toxic compounds, and can serve as biofilters that accumulate and transform these pollutants. The findings support the wider use of earthworm-based bioremediation as a strategy for restoring contaminated soils.
Earthworm-Microplastic Interactions: Revealing the Feasibility and Obstacles of Utilizing Earthworms to Maintain the Health of Microplastic-Contaminated Soils
Scientists reviewed existing research and found that earthworms might help clean up tiny plastic pieces (called microplastics) in farm soil by breaking them down in their stomachs and through helpful bacteria in their guts. This matters because microplastics in soil can harm the food we grow, but using earthworms as natural cleaners faces major challenges and needs much more research before it could actually work on farms. The earthworm method shows promise but isn't ready to solve our plastic pollution problem yet.