Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Coexistence of microplastics and heavy metals in soil: Occurrence, transport, key interactions and effect on plants

This review examines how microplastics and heavy metals like lead, cadmium, and arsenic interact in soil, often creating combined toxic effects on plants that differ from either pollutant alone. These interactions are relevant to human health because contaminated crops can transfer both microplastics and heavy metals to people through the food supply.

2024 Environmental Research 57 citations
Article Tier 2

Coupled effects of microplastics and heavy metals on plants: Uptake, bioaccumulation, and environmental health perspectives

This review examines how microplastics and heavy metals work together to harm plants when both are present in soil. Microplastics can absorb heavy metals like lead, cadmium, and arsenic, and when plants take up these contaminated particles, the combined toxic effect is worse than either pollutant alone. This is concerning for human health because crops grown in contaminated soil could carry both microplastics and concentrated heavy metals into the food supply.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 205 citations
Article Tier 2

A critical review of co-pollution of microplastics and heavy metals in agricultural soil environments

This review examines how microplastics and heavy metals frequently occur together in agricultural soil, where they interact in ways that can increase the toxicity of both. These co-contaminants can harm soil organisms, reduce crop productivity, and potentially enter the human food chain, making their combined presence in farmland a growing concern for food safety and health.

2024 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 26 citations
Review Tier 2

Interactive effects of microplastics and typical pollutants on the soil-plant system: a mini-review

This review examines how microplastics interact with heavy metals and organic pollutants in soil and what that means for plant growth. Researchers found that certain plastic types can increase the availability of toxic metals like cadmium while also affecting how organic chemicals behave in soil. The study suggests that the combined presence of microplastics and other pollutants in agricultural soils may create compounding risks to crop health and food safety.

2024 Circular Agricultural Systems 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Influencing mechanisms of microplastics existence on soil heavy metals accumulated by plants

This review summarizes existing research on how microplastics in soil affect the uptake of heavy metals by plants. Microplastics can change soil chemistry and microbial communities in ways that alter how much toxic metals plants absorb through their roots. This is concerning for human health because microplastic-contaminated agricultural soil could lead to crops that contain higher levels of dangerous heavy metals.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 55 citations
Article Tier 2

Sources, effects and present perspectives of heavy metals contamination: soil, plants and human food chain

This review summarizes how heavy metals like lead, cadmium, and arsenic contaminate soil, get absorbed by crops, and enter the human food chain. Heavy metals at high levels can damage plant growth and accumulate in food at concentrations unsafe for human consumption. This is relevant to microplastics research because microplastics in soil can bind and transport heavy metals, potentially increasing the amount that ends up in the food we eat.

2023 30 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of microplastics and cadmium co-contamination on soil properties, maize (Zea mays L.) growth characteristics, and cadmium accumulation in maize in loessial soil-maize systems

Researchers studied the combined effects of polyethylene microplastics and cadmium on soil properties and maize growth through pot experiments. They found that microplastics altered soil nutrient availability and, depending on size and concentration, either increased or decreased cadmium uptake by the plants. The study suggests that microplastic contamination in agricultural soils can change how crops absorb toxic heavy metals, with potential implications for food safety.

2024 Environmental Pollution 27 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and Potentially Toxic Elements: Potential Human Exposure Pathways through Agricultural Lands and Policy Based Countermeasures

This review examines how microplastics interact with potentially toxic elements in agricultural soils and the resulting human exposure pathways. Researchers found that microplastics can adsorb heavy metals and other contaminants, enhancing their transport through soil and into crops. The study outlines policy-based countermeasures needed to address the combined risks of microplastic and heavy metal contamination in food production systems.

2022 Microplastics 53 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of combined microplastics and heavy metals pollution on terrestrial plants and rhizosphere environment: A review

This review summarizes how microplastics and heavy metals interact in soil to affect plant growth and the surrounding ecosystem. When present together, these pollutants cause significantly more harm than either alone, reducing plant weight by up to 87.5% and altering how heavy metals accumulate in crops -- raising concerns about food safety and human exposure through contaminated agricultural products.

2024 Chemosphere 26 citations
Article Tier 2

Interaction of microplastics with heavy metals in soil: Mechanisms, influencing factors and biological effects

This review summarizes how microplastics and heavy metals interact in soil, where microplastics can absorb and carry toxic metals through the food chain and into the human body. Aging and weathering of microplastics changes their surface properties, making them better at picking up heavy metals, which raises concerns about combined exposure through contaminated crops and water.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 96 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in Agricultural Soils: Sources, Fate, and Interactions with Other Contaminants

This review examines how microplastics enter farmland through irrigation, fertilizers, and plastic mulch, and how long-term farming practices affect their spread and aging in soil. The paper highlights that microplastics can either increase or decrease the toxicity of co-existing pollutants like pesticides and heavy metals depending on how strongly each contaminant binds to soil versus plastic particles.

2025 Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 10 citations
Review Tier 2

Phytoremediation of Co-Contaminated Environments: A Review of Microplastic and Heavy Metal/Organic Pollutant Interactions and Plant-Based Removal Approaches

This review examined how microplastics interact with heavy metals and organic pollutants in soil and how plants can be used to clean up these mixed contamination scenarios. Researchers found that microplastics can either increase or decrease the toxicity of co-pollutants depending on their chemical properties, and emerging approaches like genetically modified plants and microbial partnerships show promise for improving cleanup efforts.

2025 Soil Systems 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics alter cadmium accumulation in different soil-plant systems: Revealing the crucial roles of soil bacteria and metabolism

A study found that microplastics in soil can change how much cadmium, a toxic heavy metal, is absorbed by food crops, with the effects varying depending on soil type and the amount of plastic present. By altering soil chemistry and bacterial communities, microplastics reshape how pollutants move through farmland and into the food we eat.

2024 Journal of Hazardous Materials 44 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of microplastics and arsenic on plants: Interactions, toxicity and environmental implications

This review examines how microplastics and arsenic interact in soil and their combined effects on plant health. When both pollutants are present together, they can have amplified toxic effects on plants, affecting growth, nutrient uptake, and stress responses. Since plants absorb these contaminants from soil, the interaction between microplastics and arsenic could increase human exposure to both pollutants through food crops.

2023 Chemosphere 41 citations
Meta Analysis Tier 1

Meta-analysis of impacts of microplastics on plant heavy metal(loid) accumulation

A meta-analysis of 3,226 observations found that microplastics promoted plant uptake of cadmium (11%), lead (30%), and copper (47.1%) in shoots, but decreased arsenic accumulation by 22.6%. Microplastics increased available soil concentrations of these metal cations while lowering soil pH, with machine learning revealing that soil pH and total heavy metal concentration are the primary drivers of plant metal accumulation.

2024 Environmental Pollution 61 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of Co-Contamination of Microplastics and Cd on Plant Growth and Cd Accumulation

Researchers investigated how two types of microplastics, high-density polyethylene and polystyrene, at various concentrations affect cadmium uptake and toxicity in maize plants grown in agricultural soil. The study found that while polyethylene alone had no significant effect, polystyrene at higher doses altered cadmium accumulation patterns, suggesting that different plastic types may interact differently with heavy metals in soil.

2020 Toxics 239 citations
Article Tier 2

Impact of Microplstic and Lead Toxicity on the Terrestrial Plants: a Critical Review

This review examines the toxic effects of microplastics and lead on terrestrial plants, synthesizing evidence that MPs modify soil physicochemical properties and enzymatic activity while lead disrupts root and shoot biomass, leaf development, and growth tolerance. Combined microplastic-lead exposure is found to be more damaging than either stressor alone, with implications for agricultural productivity in contaminated soils.

2025 International Journal of Biology Pharmacy and Allied Sciences
Article Tier 2

Microplastic-Mediated Heavy Metal Uptake in Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.): Implications for Food Safety and Agricultural Sustainability

Researchers grew lettuce in contaminated soil mixed with different types of microplastics, including fibers, glitter, and fragments from bags and bottles. They found that microplastics altered how heavy metals like lead, cadmium, and copper moved through the soil and into the plants, sometimes increasing uptake of toxic metals in roots while decreasing others in leaves. The results raise concerns about food safety in agricultural areas where both microplastic and heavy metal contamination overlap.

2025 Molecules 3 citations
Meta Analysis Tier 1

Unveiling the impacts of microplastics on cadmium transfer in the soil-plant-human system: A review

A meta-analysis found that microplastics significantly increase soil cadmium bioavailability by 6.9% and cadmium accumulation in plant shoots by 9.3%, through both direct surface adsorption and indirect modification of soil pH and dissolved organic carbon. This enhanced cadmium mobility through the soil-plant-human food chain amplifies health risks, as co-ingestion of microplastics and cadmium increases cadmium bioaccessibility and tissue damage.

2024 Journal of Hazardous Materials 46 citations
Article Tier 2

The role of microplastic pollution in the modification of the physicochemical properties of arable soil and uptake of potential toxic elements by plants

Researchers conducted a series of studies analyzing how microplastic pollution modifies the physicochemical properties of arable soil and affects the uptake of potentially toxic heavy metals by plants, beginning with a comprehensive literature review of microplastic interactions with plant physiology, metals, pesticides, and pathogens.

2025 Prace Naukowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego we Wrocławiu
Article Tier 2

Coupled Effects of Polyethylene Microplastics and Cadmium on Soil–Plant Systems: Impact on Soil Properties and Cadmium Uptake in Lettuce

Researchers studied how polyethylene microplastics interact with cadmium contamination in soil and its effects on lettuce growth. The study found that microplastics combined with cadmium significantly decreased soil quality and that microplastics can alter cadmium uptake in plants, suggesting that co-contamination of agricultural soils with both pollutants may pose compounded risks to food crop safety.

2025 Toxics 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics inAgricultural Soils: Sources, Fate,and Interactions with Other Contaminants

This review examines microplastics as emerging soil contaminants, focusing on their interactions with co-occurring pollutants such as heavy metals, pesticides, and antibiotics, and assessing the compound toxic risks these combinations pose to agricultural ecosystems and food safety.

2025 Figshare
Systematic Review Tier 1

Behaviour, ecological impacts of microplastics and cadmium on soil systems: A systematic review

This systematic review examines how microplastics and cadmium interact in soil, finding that they can make each other more harmful. Microplastics can carry toxic cadmium further through soil and increase its uptake by plants, which could mean more heavy metal contamination in the food we eat.

2024 Environmental Technology & Innovation 25 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of microplastics and cadmium on the soil-wheat system as single and combined contaminants

Researchers found that polyethylene and polypropylene microplastics combined with cadmium reduced wheat chlorophyll concentrations and affected soil-plant systems differently depending on pollution levels, revealing complex interaction effects between co-contaminants.

2023 Plant Physiology and Biochemistry 37 citations