Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Co-application of organic fertilizer and biochar ameliorates the triple composite pollution of microplastics, antibiotic resistance genes, and heavy metals in soil

Agricultural soils are increasingly polluted by a troubling combination of heavy metals, microplastics, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria — and this five-year field study found that combining biochar with organic fertilizer significantly reduces all three types of contamination at once. The treatment worked by reshaping soil microbial communities in ways that suppressed antibiotic-resistant organisms while promoting microbes that break down plastics and immobilize metals. This approach offers a practical, field-tested strategy for cleaning up complex pollution in intensively farmed soils.

2026 Journal of Hazardous Materials
Article Tier 2

Biochar and organic fertilizer applications enhance soil functional microbial abundance and agroecosystem multifunctionality

A long-term field study found that adding biochar (a charcoal-like material) and organic fertilizer to farm soil significantly boosted beneficial soil microbes involved in nutrient cycling and improved overall ecosystem health by up to 30%. While not directly about microplastics, biochar has been shown in other studies to bind microplastics and reduce their movement through soil, making this approach potentially beneficial for both soil productivity and microplastic mitigation on farms.

2024 Biochar 143 citations
Article Tier 2

Biochar-mediated remediation of low-density polyethylene microplastic-polluted soil-plant systems: Role of phosphorus and protist community responses

Researchers found that adding biochar (a charcoal-like soil additive) to soil contaminated with microplastics helped improve plant growth by restoring phosphorus cycling. The microplastics disrupted soil microbe communities, but biochar treatment shifted these communities in beneficial ways. This suggests biochar could be a practical tool for farming in soils contaminated with plastic pollution.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials 16 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of biochar amendment and organic fertilizer on microbial communities in the rhizosphere soil of wheat in Yellow River Delta saline-alkaline soil

Researchers studied how adding biochar and organic fertilizer to salty alkaline soil in China's Yellow River Delta affected the microbial communities around wheat roots. Both amendments increased beneficial soil bacteria and improved soil fertility indicators like organic matter and available nutrients. The findings suggest that biochar and organic fertilizer together can help rehabilitate degraded saline soils by promoting healthier microbial ecosystems.

2023 Frontiers in Microbiology 24 citations
Article Tier 2

Combined effect of biochar and soil moisture on soil chemical properties and microbial community composition in microplastic‐contaminated agricultural soil

Biochar was applied to microplastic-contaminated agricultural soil under different moisture conditions, with results showing that biochar improved soil chemical properties and shifted microbial communities in ways that partially offset microplastic-induced degradation. The study suggests biochar as a practical soil amendment to mitigate microplastic impacts in farming systems.

2022 Soil Use and Management 49 citations
Article Tier 2

Exploring the potential of biochar for the remediation of microbial communities and element cycling in microplastic-contaminated soil

Scientists found that adding biochar (a charcoal-like material made from plant waste) to soil contaminated with microplastics helped restore healthy microbial communities and nutrient cycling. The biochar reversed negative effects that microplastics had on soil chemistry, including nitrogen and phosphorus availability. This suggests biochar could be a practical tool for repairing farmland damaged by microplastic pollution.

2024 Chemosphere 13 citations
Article Tier 2

Impact of Coexistence of Microplastics and Biochar on the Abundance and Structure of Soil Fungal Communities

Researchers investigated the effects of polypropylene, polyethylene, and PVC microplastics — alone and in combination with biochar — on soil fungal community structure, diversity, and functional prediction in agricultural soil. Microplastics increased overall fungal abundance but reduced diversity indices, with dominant taxa including Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Mortierella, Aspergillus, and Fusarium, and coexistence with biochar amplifying these effects beyond microplastics alone.

2023 Journal of Biobased Materials and Bioenergy 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Bacterial-charged biochar enhances plant growth and mitigates microplastic toxicity by altering microbial communities and soil metabolism

Researchers tested whether adding bacteria and biochar (a charcoal-like material) to microplastic-contaminated paddy soil could help rice plants recover, finding that the combined treatment increased shoot weight by over 100% and dramatically improved nutrient uptake genes. The treatment also enriched beneficial soil microbes and reduced oxidative stress in rice, offering a promising strategy for restoring agricultural soils polluted with microplastics.

2025 Plant Stress 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Machine learning models reveal how biochar amendment affects soil microbial communities

Researchers used machine learning to reanalyze 1,813 soil microbiome sequencing datasets and found that biochar — a charcoal-like material made from burned organic matter — consistently shifts soil bacterial and fungal communities toward species that promote plant growth and nutrient cycling while increasing microbial diversity. The study provides the most comprehensive picture yet of how biochar amendments reshape soil ecosystems, offering guidance for its use in sustainable agriculture.

2023 Biochar 45 citations
Article Tier 2

Plant-driven strategies for mitigating microplastic pollution in agricultural ecosystems

Researchers review how microplastics damage agricultural soils and crops — disrupting soil structure, starving plants of nutrients, and triggering oxidative stress — and explore plant- and microbe-based strategies like root-associated bacteria and biochar amendments as promising but underexplored tools for cleaning up plastic-contaminated farmland.

2025 Hygiene and Environmental Health Advances
Article Tier 2

Microbial responses towards biochar application in potentially toxic element (PTE) contaminated soil: a critical review on effects and potential mechanisms

Researchers reviewed how biochar — a charcoal-like material made from organic waste — can protect soil microorganisms from toxic heavy metal contamination by reducing metal availability and improving soil conditions. The review found that biochar addition consistently shifted microbial communities toward healthier, more diverse compositions, offering a practical soil remediation strategy aligned with sustainability goals.

2023 Biochar 20 citations
Article Tier 2

Biochar-compost amendment enhanced sorghum growth and yield by improving soil physicochemical properties and shifting soil bacterial community in a coastal soil

Researchers investigated the combined application of biochar and compost as a soil amendment strategy in coastal saline soils planted with sorghum, measuring effects on soil physicochemical properties and bacterial community composition. They found that the biochar-compost co-amendment significantly improved soil quality and shifted the bacterial community in ways that enhanced sorghum growth and yield beyond what either amendment achieved alone.

2022 Frontiers in Environmental Science 18 citations
Article Tier 2

Shifts in maize microbial communities and networks are correlated with the soil soil chemical property under different fertilization regimes

A corn field experiment compared how different fertilizers — chemical versus organic — shaped soil microbial communities and their interaction networks. Organic fertilizers altered both the diversity and connections between soil microbes, which has implications for soil health and agricultural sustainability.

2023 Research Square (Research Square)
Article Tier 2

Interactive effects of drought and microplastic particle size on soil bacterial community structure

Scientists found that tiny plastic particles in soil become more harmful to the beneficial bacteria that keep soil healthy when combined with drought conditions. The smallest plastic particles caused the most damage, reducing the diversity of helpful soil bacteria by up to 29% during dry conditions. This matters because healthy soil bacteria are essential for growing nutritious food, and climate change is making both plastic pollution and droughts more common worldwide.

2026 Journal of Hazardous Materials
Article Tier 2

Mitigating microplastic stress on peanuts: The role of biochar-based synthetic community in the preservation of soil physicochemical properties and microbial diversity

Researchers found that tire-derived microplastics in soil harmed peanut plant growth and disrupted soil bacteria, but adding biochar with a specially designed bacterial community helped counteract the damage. The biochar treatment restored soil health, improved microbial diversity, and boosted peanut growth even in microplastic-contaminated soil. This approach could help protect food crops from the harmful effects of microplastic pollution in agricultural land.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 15 citations
Article Tier 2

How Organic Mulching Influences the Soil Bacterial Community Structure and Function in Urban Forests

Researchers tested how different types of organic mulch affect the bacterial communities in urban forest soils. They found that wood chips and compost changed the soil's chemical properties and shifted the types of bacteria present, particularly those involved in carbon and nitrogen cycling. The study suggests that organic mulching could be a practical tool for improving the microbial health of urban soils.

2024 Microorganisms 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Biochar alters chemical and microbial properties of microplastic-contaminated soil

Researchers found that biochar amendments improved chemical and microbial properties of microplastic-contaminated soil, with effects varying by biochar type and water conditions, suggesting biochar as a potential remediation tool for plastic-polluted agricultural soils.

2022 Environmental Research 108 citations
Article Tier 2

Synergistic effects of biochar and phosphate fertilizer on fungal communities and soybean productivity in microplastic-contaminated alkaline soils

Researchers investigated synergistic effects of biochar and phosphate fertilizer on fungal communities and phosphorus dynamics in alkaline soils containing microplastics, finding that biochar application could partially counteract the disruption of plant-microbe-soil phosphorus dynamics caused by microplastic contamination.

2025 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety
Article Tier 2

Synergistic biochar‑Bacillus consortium enhances phosphorus availability, root architecture, and inflorescence development in greenhouse cherry tomato

Despite its title referencing biochar and Bacillus soil amendments, this paper studies how combining biochar with beneficial bacteria improves phosphorus availability and crop yield in greenhouse tomato farming — not microplastic pollution. It examines changes in soil microbiology and root development and is not relevant to microplastics or human health.

2026 Biochar
Article Tier 2

Effects of biochar amendment on bacterial communities and their function predictions in a microplastic-contaminated Capsicum annuum L. soil

Researchers investigated how adding biochar to soil contaminated with microplastics affects bacterial communities during pepper plant growth. They found that biochar amendment helped restore bacterial diversity and shifted community composition toward beneficial species, counteracting some of the negative effects of microplastic contamination. The study suggests that biochar could be a practical soil management tool for supporting microbial health in plastic-polluted agricultural systems.

2023 Environmental Technology & Innovation 63 citations
Article Tier 2

Biochar Mitigates the Negative Effects of Microplastics on Sugarcane Growth by Altering Soil Nutrients and Microbial Community Structure and Function

Microplastic contamination in sugarcane-growing soils in China reduces crop biomass and degrades soil nutrients and microbial diversity. Adding biochar to microplastic-polluted soil helped offset these harms — restoring sugarcane growth, stabilizing soil pH, and improving bacterial community richness. The findings suggest biochar is a practical tool for rehabilitating agricultural land affected by plastic pollution.

2023 Plants 14 citations
Article Tier 2

[Effects of Biochar Application on Physicochemical Properties and Bacterial Communities of Microplastic-contaminated Calcareous Soil].

Researchers conducted a 21-day micro-soil culture experiment to assess the effects of biochar amendment on physicochemical properties and bacterial communities in calcareous soil contaminated with microplastics, using 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing. Biochar slowed decreases in nitrate nitrogen and Olsen-P in microplastic-contaminated soil and increased the relative abundance of stress-tolerant phyla including Acidobacteriota, Actinobacteriota, and Bacteroidota.

2023 PubMed 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Biochar alleviated the toxic effects of PVC microplastic in a soil-plant system by upregulating soil enzyme activities and microbial abundance

Researchers tested whether adding biochar to soil could reduce the harmful effects of PVC microplastic contamination on plant growth and soil health. They found that biochar amendment increased plant biomass, restored soil enzyme activity, and boosted beneficial microbial populations that had been suppressed by the microplastics. The study suggests that biochar could serve as a practical tool for rehabilitating agricultural soils contaminated with plastic particles.

2023 Environmental Pollution 72 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of microbial inoculants combined with maize straw on physicochemical properties and microbial community structure in black soil during soybean growth

This paper is not about microplastics; it examines how combining microbial inoculants with maize straw as a soil amendment improves soybean yield and soil microbial diversity.

2023