Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Identifying potential threats to soil biodiversity

Researchers conducted a thorough review of threats to soil biodiversity, identifying human intensive exploitation, land-use change, and soil organic matter decline among the key factors driving biodiversity loss. The review considers emerging pollutants including microplastics as potential threats and emphasizes the importance of monitoring soil biodiversity given its critical role in ecosystem functioning.

2020 PeerJ 121 citations
Article Tier 2

Exposure Pathways and Toxicity of Microplastics in Terrestrial Insects

This review summarizes what is known about how land-dwelling insects encounter, consume, and are affected by plastic pollution. Insects can accumulate microplastics and transfer them to animals higher up the food chain, and exposure has been linked to reduced growth, reproduction, and survival. Since insects play critical roles in pollination and soil health, widespread plastic contamination could have cascading effects on ecosystems and agriculture.

2024 Environmental Science & Technology 31 citations
Article Tier 2

Toxicological complexity of microplastics in terrestrial ecosystems

This review summarizes how microplastics interact with other pollutants like heavy metals and pesticides in soil, creating combined toxic effects that threaten ecosystems and agriculture. The paper highlights that microplastics can change soil structure and disrupt the communities of microorganisms that keep soil healthy, with ripple effects on crop yields and food security.

2025 iScience 23 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

Interactions of insects with micro- and nanoplastics: A review

This comprehensive review of 114 studies found that micro- and nanoplastics accumulate in both terrestrial and aquatic insects, causing reduced growth, impaired reproduction, oxidative stress, and gut microbiome disruption. Since insects are foundational to food webs and pollination, plastic contamination in insect populations could cascade through ecosystems and ultimately affect human food systems.

2026 The Science of The Total Environment
Article Tier 2

A review of microplastics in soil: Occurrence, analytical methods, combined contamination and risks

This review provides a comprehensive overview of microplastic pollution in soil ecosystems, covering sources, detection methods, and ecological impacts. Researchers found that soils are major reservoirs for microplastics, and the study highlights how combined contamination with other pollutants like heavy metals and pesticides may amplify risks to soil organisms and food safety.

2022 Environmental Pollution 75 citations
Meta Analysis Tier 1

A global meta-analysis reveals the toxicity of plastics on insect health

This meta-analysis pools data from global studies to reveal that microplastics and nanoplastics are harmful to insect health, affecting survival, reproduction, and development. Since insects play critical roles in pollination and food chains, their decline from plastic pollution could have cascading effects on agriculture and the broader ecosystems humans depend on.

2025 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Impact of Microplastics on Soil's Biodiversity and Public Health

This book chapter examines how microplastic contamination of soil affects biodiversity—including soil microbes, invertebrates, and plants—and discusses the broader public health implications of agricultural soil pollution and potential pathways of human exposure through food.

2025
Article Tier 2

Microplastic Pollution in Terrestrial Ecosystems and Its Interaction with Other Soil Pollutants: A Potential Threat to Soil Ecosystem Sustainability

This review examines microplastic pollution in soils and how plastic particles interact with other pollutants like pesticides and heavy metals. About 80% of all plastic waste produced in the last 75 years has ended up in landfills or the environment, where it breaks into microplastics that alter soil health and contaminate crops. The combined effects of microplastics with other soil pollutants could threaten food safety and ultimately human health.

2023 Resources 83 citations
Article Tier 2

Interactions of Microplastics with Pesticides in Soils and Their Ecotoxicological Implications

This review examines how microplastics interact with pesticides in soil environments, finding that microplastics can sorb and transport pesticides, potentially altering their bioavailability and toxicity to soil organisms and ecosystems.

2023 Agronomy 58 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics as an Emerging Environmental Pollutant in Agricultural Soils: Effects on Ecosystems and Human Health

This review examines how microplastics enter and move through agricultural soil ecosystems, affecting soil properties, nutrient cycling, and the organisms that live in and depend on healthy soil. Researchers found that microplastics can alter key biogeochemical processes and interact with co-existing pollutants like heavy metals and pesticides, potentially compounding their harmful effects. The study highlights the need for prevention and control strategies as microplastic contamination of farmland becomes an increasingly recognized environmental and potential human health concern.

2022 Frontiers in Environmental Science 151 citations
Article Tier 2

Combined pollution of soil by heavy metals, microplastics, and pesticides: Mechanisms and anthropogenic drivers

This study investigated how heavy metals, microplastics, and pesticides interact when they contaminate soil together, finding that their combined effects are complex and often worse than any single pollutant. Microplastics can absorb and concentrate both heavy metals and pesticides, changing how these chemicals move through soil and into plants. The findings highlight how agricultural soils contaminated with multiple pollutants could increase human exposure through crops grown in that soil.

2024 Journal of Hazardous Materials 80 citations
Article Tier 2

Interaction of Invertebrates and Synthetic Polymers in Soil: A Review

This review summarizes how microplastics in soil harm invertebrates including nematodes, springtails, and earthworms, while some soil animals can fragment or ingest and transport plastic particles. The presence of microplastics in soil disrupts the gut function of soil organisms that play critical roles in maintaining healthy, productive soils.

2020 Russian Journal of Ecology 20 citations
Article Tier 2

Soil 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.

2024 Ecologies 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Impact of Microplastics on Soil's Biodiversity and Public Health

This book chapter reviews the impacts of microplastic pollution on soil biodiversity and public health, examining how plastic particles disrupt soil microbial communities, affect soil-dwelling invertebrates, and enter the human food chain through contaminated crops.

2025
Article Tier 2

Interaction of microplastics and terrestrial and aquatic insects (bioaccumulation, degradation, ecotoxicological effects)

This review synthesizes research on how insects — both aquatic and terrestrial — interact with microplastics, covering ingestion, bioaccumulation, potential degradation, and toxic effects across many species. Insects represent a critical but understudied link in microplastic transfer through food webs: they occupy a pivotal trophic position, and contamination in insects can propagate to birds, fish, and other wildlife that depend on them. The review highlights significant knowledge gaps in terrestrial insect ecotoxicology compared to the better-studied aquatic realm.

2023 Digital library (repository) of Tomsk State University 7 citations
Article Tier 2

A critical review on interaction of microplastics with organic contaminants in soil and their ecological risks on soil organisms

This review examines how microplastics interact with organic pollutants in soil, including pesticides and industrial chemicals, and the combined risks they pose to soil ecosystems. Researchers found that microplastics can adsorb organic contaminants through various mechanisms and alter their movement, breakdown, and toxicity in soil. The combined effects on soil animals, plants, and microorganisms can be either synergistic or antagonistic, making risk assessment more complex than studying either pollutant alone.

2022 Chemosphere 105 citations
Article Tier 2

Interactions of Microplastics Toward an Ecological Risk in Soil Diversity

This review examines the ecological risks of microplastics in soil environments, discussing their sources, global distribution, mechanisms of entry into soil food webs, effects on microbial communities and soil fauna, biomagnification through trophic levels, and implications for soil ecosystem services and biodiversity.

2022 1 citations
Meta Analysis Tier 1

Interactions between microplastics and insects in terrestrial ecosystems—A systematic review and meta-analysis

This meta-analysis with phylogenetic control found that microplastic exposure impairs key biological traits of insects, primarily behavior and reproduction, with effects varying by polymer type and particle size. Field evidence confirmed that insects ingest and transfer microplastics along food chains, and also contribute to bio-fragmentation of larger plastic debris into smaller particles.

2023 Journal of Hazardous Materials 34 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and environmental pollutants: Key interaction and toxicology in aquatic and soil environments

This review tracks how microplastics move through soil, water, and air ecosystems, acting as carriers for other pollutants like pesticides and heavy metals. When microplastics absorb these toxins, the combined effect on organisms can be worse than either pollutant alone. The paper highlights the need for better understanding of how these pollutant combinations affect ecosystems and ultimately human health through contaminated food and water.

2021 Journal of Hazardous Materials 520 citations
Article Tier 2

The forgotten impacts of plastic contamination on terrestrial micro- and mesofauna: A call for research

This review highlights the overlooked impact of microplastics on tiny soil organisms like mites, springtails, and nematodes that play critical roles in keeping soil ecosystems healthy. Ingesting microplastics can harm their development and reproduction, which disrupts nutrient cycling and soil food webs. Since these organisms help maintain the soil that grows our food, their decline from plastic pollution could have cascading effects on agriculture and human nutrition.

2023 Environmental Research 61 citations
Article Tier 2

Understanding the effects of Microplastics and persistent organic pollutants' on soil ecosystem services supply

This research review shows that tiny plastic particles (microplastics) and long-lasting chemical pollutants are harming soil in ways that threaten human wellbeing. These pollutants damage soil's ability to grow healthy food, prevent floods, filter water, and support the plants we depend on for medicine and other resources. When soil gets polluted, it creates a chain reaction that reduces food production and makes our environment less able to protect us from natural disasters.

2026
Article Tier 2

Research of New Pollutant Microplastics in Soil

This review summarizes microplastic pollution in agricultural soils, covering sources, abundance, transport pathways, and interactions with heavy metals and organic pollutants. The authors highlight that soil microplastic contamination is a growing threat to food security and soil ecosystem health.

2021 IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Exploring the Impact of Micro-plastics on Soil Health and Ecosystem Dynamics: A Comprehensive Review

This review examines how microplastics affect soil health, finding that they alter soil structure, water retention, and the organisms that live in soil. Microplastics can carry toxic substances into soil and interact with other pollutants to amplify harmful effects on earthworms and soil microbes. Since healthy soil is essential for growing safe food, microplastic contamination of agricultural land could have long-term consequences for the food supply and human health.

2024 Journal of Experimental Biology and Agricultural Sciences 15 citations
Article Tier 2

The extent and impacts of soil pollution by microplastics

This study examines the extent and impacts of soil pollution by microplastics, reviewing evidence of how microplastic particles accumulate in terrestrial environments and affect soil ecosystems, organisms, and agricultural systems.

2024 SPIRE - Sciences Po Institutional REpository