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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to The Impact of Microplastics on Soil Invertebrates
ClearWhat do we know about how the terrestrial multicellular soil fauna reacts to microplastic?
This review analyzed the available literature on how soil-dwelling animals respond to microplastics and found evidence of uptake, bioaccumulation, and harmful effects across many groups including earthworms, springtails, and beetles. Most studies used high concentrations not yet found in real soils, limiting conclusions about current environmental risks.
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.
Plastic pollution in terrestrial ecosystems: Current knowledge on impacts of micro and nano fragments on invertebrates
This review summarizes research on how micro- and nanoplastics affect soil-dwelling invertebrates like earthworms and insects, finding that effects vary widely depending on plastic type, shape, concentration, and exposure time. While no broad conclusions could be drawn, the documented sublethal effects on soil organisms could disrupt the soil ecosystems that support the crops humans depend on for food.
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.
What do we know about how the terrestrial multicellular soil fauna reacts to microplastic?
This review synthesized studies on how soil-dwelling animals — including earthworms, insects, and mites — respond to microplastic contamination, finding evidence of ingestion, tissue accumulation, and harmful effects across multiple soil organism groups. However, most studies used unrealistically high concentrations, making it difficult to draw firm conclusions about risks at current environmental levels.
Implication of microplastics on soil faunal communities — identifying gaps of knowledge
This systematic review examines how microplastics in soil affect earthworms, springtails, mites, and other soil-dwelling creatures that are essential for healthy soil. The impacts are highly variable and depend on the type of plastic, particle size, and soil conditions, making broad conclusions difficult. The review identifies critical knowledge gaps, noting that most studies use unrealistically high microplastic concentrations, and calls for research at levels that match actual field conditions.
Identification and quantification of macro- and microplastics on an agricultural farmland
Researchers examined how polystyrene microplastics affect the soil-dwelling springtail Folsomia candida and found that exposure altered gut microbiota composition and reduced reproductive output. The microplastics disrupted the balance of beneficial bacteria in the gut of these important soil organisms. The study suggests that microplastic contamination in soils could have broader consequences for soil health by affecting the organisms that help maintain ecosystem functions like nutrient cycling.
Interactions between microplastics and soil fauna: A critical review
This review summarizes how microplastics affect soil animals like earthworms and nematodes, which play crucial roles in maintaining healthy soil. Microplastics can harm these organisms through ingestion, tissue damage, oxidative stress, and disruption of their gut bacteria, reducing their ability to decompose organic matter and cycle nutrients. In turn, soil animals can break down and spread microplastics through the soil, potentially transferring them up the food chain to animals and humans.
Effects of environmentally relevant mixtures of microplastics on soil organisms
Researchers exposed earthworms and springtails to environmentally realistic mixtures of microplastics commonly found in agricultural soils treated with sewage sludge. They found that earthworms ingested microplastics in proportion to exposure levels, and at higher concentrations, both species showed reduced reproduction. The study provides evidence that real-world microplastic mixtures in farm soils can affect important soil organisms at concentrations already found in the environment.
What do we know about how the terrestrial multicellular soil fauna reacts to microplastic?
This review analyzed published studies on how multicellular soil organisms (including earthworms, mites, springtails, and nematodes) ingest and respond to microplastics, finding that most studies used unrealistically high concentrations and that ecologically relevant effects on soil fauna remain poorly characterized.
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.
Assessing the impacts of microplastics on soil meso- and macro-fauna
This study aims to extend understanding of microplastic impacts beyond earthworms to include mites, collembolans, and other key soil invertebrate groups, developing ecotoxicology tests to establish risk assessment levels for microplastics in soil ecosystems.
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.
Underestimated and ignored? The impacts of microplastic on soil invertebrates—Current scientific knowledge and research needs
This review highlights the critical gap in research on how microplastics affect soil invertebrates, noting that soil ecosystems receive far more plastic pollution than oceans yet the ecological consequences for soil fauna remain poorly understood and largely unstudied.
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.
Effects of environmentally relevant mixtures of microplastics on terrestrial organisms
Researchers tested the effects of environmentally realistic microplastic mixtures on the earthworm Eisenia andrei and the springtail Folsomia candida as soil model organisms. Even at environmentally relevant concentrations, the microplastic mixture caused measurable negative effects on soil organism health and reproduction.
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.
Ecological Effects of Soil Microplastic Pollution
This review summarizes how microplastics contaminate soils, what effects they have on soil animals and microbes, and how they disrupt carbon and nitrogen cycling. As soils are the base of terrestrial food webs, microplastic-induced changes in soil ecosystems have cascading effects on food safety and human health.
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.
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.
Effects of pristine microplastics and nanoplastics on soil invertebrates: A systematic review and meta-analysis of available data
About 49% of 1,061 biological endpoints were significantly affected by pristine micro- and nanoplastics across 56 studies on soil invertebrates, with polymers containing chloro and phenyl groups causing the most harm; concentrations above 1 g/kg in soil decreased earthworm growth and survival.
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.
Microplastics in soils: Production, behavior process, impact on soil organisms, and related toxicity mechanisms
This review examines how microplastics enter and persist in soils, covering their sources from agricultural plastics, irrigation water, and atmospheric deposition. Researchers found that microplastics can alter soil structure, affect nutrient cycling, and harm soil organisms like earthworms and microbes. The study highlights significant gaps in understanding the long-term ecological consequences of soil microplastic contamination.
Effects of microplastics on soil physical, chemical and biological properties
This review examines how microplastics affect soil health, covering their impact on the physical structure, chemical composition, and biological communities of soil ecosystems. Microplastics can alter soil water retention, change nutrient cycling, and harm soil organisms from earthworms to microbes. Since agricultural soils are a major reservoir of microplastics, these changes could affect crop growth and food quality, creating an indirect pathway for microplastic-related harm to human health.