Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Adsorption behavior of azole fungicides on polystyrene and polyethylene microplastics

Researchers studied how polystyrene and polyethylene microplastics adsorb azole fungicides commonly used in agriculture. The study found that smaller microplastic particle sizes led to stronger adsorption capacity, and factors like pH, ionic strength, and the presence of organic acids all influenced how readily pesticides bind to microplastic surfaces.

2022 Chemosphere 47 citations
Article Tier 2

Toxicity Mechanisms of Nanoplastics on Crop Growth, Interference of Phyllosphere Microbes, and Evidence for Foliar Penetration and Translocation

Researchers exposed tomato plants to nanoplastics with different surface charges and found that positively charged particles caused the most damage, including stunted growth, increased stress responses, and disruption of the leaf microbiome. The nanoplastics penetrated through leaves and traveled to the roots, demonstrating that atmospheric plastic pollution can contaminate crops from above. This is a concern for food safety, as nanoplastics accumulating in edible plants could be a route of human exposure.

2023 Environmental Science & Technology 122 citations
Article Tier 2

Differentially charged nanoplastics demonstrate distinct accumulation in Arabidopsis thaliana

Researchers exposed Arabidopsis thaliana plants to positively and negatively charged polystyrene nanoplastics and found that charge determined accumulation patterns, with positively charged particles penetrating deeper into root and leaf tissues than negatively charged ones.

2020 Nature Nanotechnology 1121 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of Microplastics on Bioavailability, Persistence and Toxicity of Plant Pesticides: An Agricultural Perspective

This review examines how microplastics in soil interact with pesticides, generally reducing pesticide effectiveness by absorbing the chemicals onto their surfaces. While this lowers the immediate toxicity of pesticides, it also makes them last longer in the environment and may reduce pest control in agriculture, potentially affecting food production and the long-term safety of the food supply.

2025 Agriculture 19 citations
Article Tier 2

Do differentially charged nanoplastics affect imidacloprid uptake, translocation, and metabolism in Chinese flowering cabbage?

Researchers found that positively charged nanoplastics inhibited plant growth and reduced imidacloprid translocation in Chinese flowering cabbage, while negatively charged nanoplastics accelerated pesticide accumulation in shoots, revealing charge-dependent interactions affecting food safety.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 13 citations
Article Tier 2

Phytotoxicity of polystyrene, polyethylene and polypropylene microplastics on tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.)

Researchers tested the effects of polystyrene, polyethylene, and polypropylene microplastics on tomato plant growth using hydroponic experiments at various concentrations. The study found that all three types of microplastics negatively affected seed germination, root growth, and plant development, with effects varying by plastic type and concentration. These findings suggest that microplastic contamination in agricultural settings could interfere with crop growth and food production.

2022 Journal of Environmental Management 195 citations
Article Tier 2

Toxic effects of microplastics in plants depend more by their surface functional groups than just accumulation contents

Researchers studied how differently charged microplastics affect lettuce plants grown in water, finding that all types caused growth problems, root damage, and oxidative stress. Microplastics were able to penetrate roots and travel to above-ground plant parts through the water transport system. Importantly, the study found that the type of chemical groups on the microplastic surface mattered more for toxicity than the total amount of plastic accumulated in the plant.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 135 citations
Article Tier 2

Positively Charged Microplastics Induce Strong Lettuce Stress Responses from Physiological, Transcriptomic, and Metabolomic Perspectives

Researchers exposed lettuce leaves to microplastics carrying different electrical charges and found that positively charged particles caused significantly stronger stress responses than negatively charged or neutral ones. The positively charged microplastics accumulated more in leaf tissue and triggered widespread changes in gene expression and metabolic pathways. The study suggests that the surface charge of microplastics is an important factor in determining their toxicity to plants.

2022 Environmental Science & Technology 111 citations
Article Tier 2

Impacts of foliar-applied polystyrene nanoplastics with different surface charges on tetracycline accumulation, phytotoxicity, and the endophytic microbiota in Chrysanthemum coronarium L.

Researchers applied polystyrene nanoplastics of different surface charges to chrysanthemum leaves and found that positively charged particles most strongly reduced antibiotic (tetracycline) uptake, suppressed iron absorption and chlorophyll production, and increased oxidative damage — while also reshaping the plant's internal microbiome — demonstrating that atmospheric nanoplastic deposition can alter both contaminant bioavailability and plant health.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials
Article Tier 2

Effect of polystyrene on di-butyl phthalate (DBP) bioavailability and DBP-induced phytotoxicity in lettuce

Researchers investigated how polystyrene microplastics of different sizes affect the bioavailability of the plasticizer di-butyl phthalate and its toxicity to lettuce plants. They found that smaller nanoscale polystyrene particles increased DBP uptake by the plants, while larger particles reduced it by adsorbing the chemical. The study demonstrates that microplastics can act as carriers for harmful chemicals in agricultural soils, with particle size determining whether they amplify or reduce pollutant exposure to crops.

2020 Environmental Pollution 149 citations
Article Tier 2

Can microplastics threaten plant productivity and fruit quality? Insights from Micro-Tom and Micro-PET/PVC

Researchers grew tomato plants in soil containing environmentally realistic levels of PET and PVC microplastics and found mixed effects on plant productivity and fruit quality. While some growth parameters were affected, the microplastics also altered the mineral content of the tomatoes. This study suggests that microplastics in agricultural soil could change the nutritional profile of the food we eat.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 58 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of Microplastics on the Adsorption and Bioavailability of Three Strobilurin Fungicides

This study investigated how microplastics affect the adsorption and bioavailability of three strobilurin fungicides, finding that polystyrene and polyethylene microplastics reduced pesticide availability in water but altered how the fungicides accumulated in and harmed zebrafish. The results demonstrate that microplastics can change the environmental behavior of agricultural pesticides in ways that are difficult to predict.

2020 ACS Omega 48 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of polystyrene nanoplastics on tomato plant growth, fruit yield and quality

Researchers investigated how polystyrene nanoplastics affect tomato plant growth and fruit quality, finding that exposure reduced seedling biomass, impaired photosynthesis, and triggered oxidative stress. At higher concentrations, the nanoplastics inhibited mineral uptake and diminished fruit yield along with nutritional quality markers like vitamin C and lycopene. The study highlights that nanoplastic contamination in agricultural soils could pose a meaningful threat to food crop productivity and nutritional value.

2026 Food Chemistry
Article Tier 2

Mechanistic insights into the size-dependent bioaccumulation and phytotoxicity of polyethylene microplastics in tomato seedlings

Researchers investigated how polyethylene microplastics of different sizes affect tomato seedlings and found that the smallest particles (1-50 micrometers) caused the most severe damage, reducing shoot weight by 42.3% and root length by 55.1%. The study revealed that microplastic uptake and toxicity are strongly size-dependent, with smaller particles more easily absorbed and translocated through plant tissues, triggering significant oxidative stress.

2026 Frontiers in Plant Science
Article Tier 2

Adsorption behavior of three triazole fungicides on polystyrene microplastics

Researchers studied how three commonly used triazole fungicides adsorb onto polystyrene microplastics under various environmental conditions. They found that smaller microplastic particles adsorbed greater quantities of fungicides, and that environmental factors like pH and salinity significantly influenced adsorption capacity. The findings suggest that microplastics in agricultural environments could act as carriers for pesticide residues, potentially altering their environmental fate and bioavailability.

2019 The Science of The Total Environment 192 citations
Article Tier 2

Adsorption mechanism of two pesticides on polyethylene and polypropylene microplastics: DFT calculations and particle size effects

Researchers studied how two common pesticides, carbofuran and carbendazim, adsorb onto polyethylene and polypropylene microplastics using both experiments and computational chemistry. They found that the type and size of microplastic particles significantly influenced how much pesticide was absorbed, with smaller particles binding more chemicals per unit weight. The study reveals that microplastics in agricultural environments can act as carriers for pesticides, potentially increasing their transport into waterways.

2021 Environmental Pollution 151 citations
Article Tier 2

Charge-selective polystyrene nanoplastic retention by plant cell walls: Pectin domains dictate differential accumulation in rice seedling roots and shoots

A study of rice seedling roots found that plant cell walls act as a charge-selective barrier to nanoplastics: negatively charged polystyrene nanoplastics (PS-COOH) accumulated nearly 4.5 times more in shoots than positively charged ones (PS-NH₂), while positive nanoplastics were preferentially retained in root cell walls by binding to pectin. The results are directly relevant to food safety because they show that nanoplastic surface chemistry determines how much plastic penetrates into the edible parts of a major global food crop.

2026 Eco-Environment & Health
Article Tier 2

Type-dependent effects of microplastics on tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.): Focus on root exudates and metabolic reprogramming

Researchers grew tomato plants in the presence of three different types of microplastics and found that each type produced distinct effects on plant physiology, root secretions, and metabolic processes. Polystyrene had the strongest negative impact, significantly altering root exudate composition and triggering metabolic reprogramming in the plants. The study demonstrates that the type of plastic matters when assessing how microplastic pollution affects crop growth and soil chemistry.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 118 citations
Article Tier 2

Foliar uptake and leaf-to-root translocation of nanoplastics with different coating charge in maize plants

Researchers showed that nanoplastics can enter maize plants not just through roots but also through leaves, and then travel down to the roots through the plant's internal transport system. Positively charged nanoplastics stuck to leaf surfaces more readily but also caused more damage to photosynthesis and triggered stronger stress responses in the plants. This finding is important because it reveals an additional pathway for nanoplastic contamination of food crops through airborne particles landing on leaves.

2021 Journal of Hazardous Materials 362 citations
Article Tier 2

Sorption to mulch film decreases bioavailability of two model pesticides for earthworms in soil

Researchers investigated how polyethylene mulch film microplastics interact with pesticides in agricultural soil and their combined effects on earthworms. The study found that sorption of pesticides to mulch film microplastics actually decreased the bioavailability of two model pesticides to earthworms, suggesting that in some cases microplastics may reduce rather than increase pesticide toxicity to soil organisms.

2025 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Accumulation modes and effects of differentially charged polystyrene nano/microplastics in water spinach (Ipomoea aquatica F.)

Researchers investigated how water spinach plants absorb nano and microplastics of different sizes and electrical charges. They found that smaller, positively charged particles were absorbed more readily by roots and could travel to the leaves, while larger particles tended to stay on root surfaces. This matters because leafy vegetables like water spinach could be delivering nanoplastics directly to people who eat them.

2024 Journal of Hazardous Materials 13 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

Bibliometric analysis and systematic review of the adherence, uptake, translocation, and reduction of micro/nanoplastics in terrestrial plants

This bibliometric analysis and systematic review synthesized research on how micro- and nanoplastics adhere to, are absorbed by, and translocate through terrestrial plants, with potential accumulation in edible tissues. The study found that particle size, surface charge, and plant species all influence uptake, and that current research lacks standardized methods, making it difficult to fully assess the risk of microplastics entering the human food chain through crops.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 20 citations
Article Tier 2

Sorption of pesticides onto polyethylene microplastics in different aqueous matrices

This thesis examined how pesticides adsorb onto polyethylene microplastics in different aqueous matrices, finding that water chemistry significantly affects the binding behavior and potential for microplastics to carry agricultural chemicals.

2023 LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas)
Article Tier 2

The varied effects of different microplastics on stem development and carbon-nitrogen metabolism in tomato

Researchers tested how six different types of microplastics, including both conventional and biodegradable varieties, affect tomato plant growth. All types disrupted the plants' internal structure and altered how they processed carbon and nitrogen, with PVC causing the most severe damage. Notably, biodegradable plastics like PLA and PBS were not harmless either, suggesting that switching to so-called eco-friendly plastics may not fully protect agricultural soil and food crops from microplastic contamination.

2025 Environmental Pollution 5 citations