Papers

61,005 results
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Review Tier 2

[Interaction between microplastics and microorganisms in soil environment: a review].

This review examines how microplastics alter soil microbial community structure and diversity, and how microorganisms in turn colonize plastic surfaces and degrade them through extracellular enzymes — with degradation efficiency dependent on polymer properties and environmental conditions.

2023 PubMed 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Microbial remediation of microplastic-contaminated soil, focusing on mechanisms, benefits, and research gaps

This systematic review examines microbial bioremediation of microplastic-contaminated soils, covering the sources and distribution of soil microplastics, their physicochemical interactions with soil microbiomes, and the mechanisms by which soil-dwelling bacteria and fungi degrade plastic polymers.

2025 npj Emerging Contaminants 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Systematical review of interactions between microplastics and microorganisms in the soil environment

This review explores interactions between microplastics and microorganisms in soil environments. Researchers found that microplastics pose a threat to the survival and reproduction of soil microbiota, but that soil microorganisms also show potential for degrading and mineralizing microplastic particles, suggesting possible biological pathways for microplastic remediation in terrestrial ecosystems.

2021 Journal of Hazardous Materials 319 citations
Article Tier 2

Effect of microplastics on soil microbial community and microbial degradation of microplastics in soil: A review

This review examines how microplastics affect soil microbial communities and the potential for microbes to degrade plastic particles in soil environments. The study highlights that soil acts as a major sink for microplastics from sources like sewage sludge, agricultural mulch, and wastewater, and identifies key knowledge gaps including the need for better monitoring of microplastic sources and exploration of microbial biodegradation potential.

2023 Environmental Engineering Research 75 citations
Article Tier 2

The Role of Soil Microorganisms in Microplastic Biodegradation: Mechanisms, Carbon Preferences, and Ecological Impacts

This review examines how soil microorganisms interact with microplastics and attempt to biodegrade them, finding that despite plastics being carbon-based, their unique chemical structures prevent microbes from using them the same way they use natural organic matter. Soil carbon availability affects which microbes preferentially colonize and partially break down plastic particles, but full assimilation remains limited. Understanding microbial degradation pathways is important for assessing how long microplastics persist in soils and for developing bioremediation strategies.

2026 Environmental Microbiology Reports
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and soil microbiomes

This review examines the two-way relationship between microplastics and soil microbiomes: how microplastics alter microbial community structure and function, and how soil microbes in turn affect the behavior of microplastics. Researchers found that microplastics can shift microbial communities and disrupt key ecosystem processes like nutrient cycling. The study also discusses how certain soil microbes may enhance the degradation of microplastics, pointing to potential natural remediation pathways.

2025 BMC Biology 13 citations
Article Tier 2

Micro Plastic Pollution in Soil Environment: A Comprehensive Review

This comprehensive review covers sources, distribution, degradation pathways, and ecological effects of microplastics in soil environments, highlighting threats to soil fauna, microbiota, and plant growth.

2024 Journal of Scientific Research and Reports 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Biodegradation of Microplastics in Soil

This review examines how soil microorganisms, plants, and soil animals contribute to the biodegradation of microplastics, summarizing current methods and their influencing factors as more sustainable alternatives to conventional plastic waste management.

2022 Advances in transdisciplinary engineering 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic accumulation in soils: Unlocking the mechanism and biodegradation pathway

Researchers reviewed how microplastics accumulate in soil and break down biologically, finding that certain microorganisms can form biofilms on plastic surfaces and use enzymes to slowly degrade the polymers — though conditions like pH, temperature, and moisture must be optimized and new plastic-degrading microbes need to be identified before this approach can be widely applied.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Bioremediation of Soil Microplastics: Categories and Mechanisms

This review examines biological approaches to breaking down microplastics in soil, including the use of bacteria, fungi, and enzymes. Researchers found that certain microorganisms can partially degrade various plastic polymers, though the process is slow and influenced by plastic type, environmental conditions, and microbial community composition.

2023 ACS symposium series 9 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic effects on soil organic matter dynamics and bacterial communities under contrasting soil environments

Researchers compared microplastic effects on soil organic matter dynamics and bacterial communities across contrasting soil environments, finding that the type of microplastic polymer and soil conditions together determine whether microbial activity and carbon cycling are stimulated or suppressed.

2024
Article Tier 2

Soils in distress: The impacts and ecological risks of (micro)plastic pollution in the terrestrial environment

This review examines how microplastics affect soil ecosystems, including their transport into soils, changes they undergo in the environment, and their interactions with soil organisms. The effects depend heavily on the type, shape, size, and amount of plastic particles present. Understanding these impacts is important because soil contamination with microplastics can affect food production and ultimately human exposure through the food chain.

2023 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 93 citations
Article Tier 2

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.

2023 Chemosphere 29 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of microplastics on soil microorganisms and microbial functions in nutrients and carbon cycling – A review

This review examines how microplastics in soil alter the communities of bacteria and fungi that are essential for recycling nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon. Microplastics can increase certain beneficial bacteria but decrease others that are important for soil fertility, and they also carry toxic chemicals that further disrupt microbial life. The authors note that most studies are short-term lab experiments, and long-term field studies are needed to understand real-world impacts.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 174 citations
Article Tier 2

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.

2024 Natural Hazards Research 32 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics as Emerging Soil Pollutants

This review covers how microplastics enter and accumulate in soils, their effects on soil health, microbial communities, soil fauna, and plant growth, and the implications of widespread soil plastic contamination for ecosystem function.

2024
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in terrestrial ecosystem: Exploring the menace to the soil-plant-microbe interactions

This review summarizes existing research on how microplastics affect the complex relationships between soil, plants, and soil microbes. Microplastics alter soil structure, change the makeup of microbial communities, and disrupt beneficial partnerships between plants and helpful fungi and bacteria. These disruptions can reduce plant growth and nutrient cycling, which could ultimately affect crop yields and the quality of food produced on microplastic-contaminated farmland.

2024 TrAC Trends in Analytical Chemistry 81 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic: Interaction with Agroecosystem and Microbial Remediation

This review examines the interactions between microplastics and agroecosystems, covering impacts on soil physical and chemical properties, microbial communities, and plant uptake, while also surveying microbial remediation strategies. It highlights a research gap in terrestrial and agricultural ecosystem studies relative to aquatic environments and calls for greater focus on soil microplastic dynamics.

2025
Article Tier 2

Enhancing Soil Health and Plant Growth through Microbial Fertilizers: Mechanisms, Benefits, and Sustainable Agricultural Practices

This study examines how microbial fertilizers improve soil health by boosting beneficial microorganism populations that help plants absorb nutrients and resist disease. While not directly about microplastics, healthy soil microbial communities are important for breaking down environmental contaminants including plastics. The research supports sustainable farming practices that could help soils better cope with microplastic contamination.

2024 Agronomy 201 citations
Article Tier 2

The Spatiotemporal Successions of Bacterial and Fungal Plastisphere Communities and Their Effects on Microplastic Degradation in Soil Ecosystems

Researchers tracked how bacterial and fungal communities colonize microplastic surfaces in soil over time, finding that the surrounding soil type had the strongest influence on which microbes grew on the plastics. The microbial communities on microplastics were less diverse and less stable than those in the surrounding soil, but they attracted microbes with a higher capacity to break down organic carbon. The study suggests that microplastic surfaces become hotspots for carbon metabolism in soil ecosystems.

2025 Environmental Science & Technology 16 citations
Article Tier 2

Soil microorganisms play an important role in the detrimental impact of biodegradable microplastics on plants

Researchers found that biodegradable microplastics harmed vegetable crop growth by disrupting the soil microbial community rather than through direct contact with the plants. When soil microorganisms were suppressed, the negative effects of the biodegradable microplastics on plant growth were also reduced. The study suggests that soil bacteria and fungi play a key role in mediating the harmful impacts of biodegradable plastics on agricultural crops.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 35 citations
Article Tier 2

Time-resolved colonization patterns of bacteria and fungi on polystyrene microplastics in floodplain soils

Scientists studied how bacteria and fungi grow on tiny plastic particles (microplastics) buried in soil over several months. They found that these microbes form films on the plastic surfaces and some types can actually break down the plastic particles. This matters because microplastics are everywhere in our environment, and understanding how soil microbes interact with them could help us learn whether these plastics break down naturally or accumulate in ways that might affect our food and water.

2026
Article Tier 2

Microplastic: Evaluating the Impact on Soil-Microbes and Plant System

This review examines how microplastics affect soil microbial communities and plant systems in agricultural settings, documenting impacts on soil health, microbial diversity, and crop physiology. As microplastics accumulate in farmland soils through irrigation, sludge application, and plastic mulches, their effects on the soil ecosystem that underpins food production are a growing concern.

2023 ACS symposium series 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Microbial communities in plastisphere and free-living microbes for microplastic degradation: A comprehensive review

Researchers reviewed how microbes — including bacteria, fungi, and biofilm communities — break down microplastics through five main processes including colonization of plastic surfaces, chemical fragmentation, and mineralization into simple compounds like CO2 and water. The review also covers how microplastics cause inflammation, oxidative stress, and potential cancer and neurotoxicity risks in living organisms, while highlighting the promise of microbial biodegradation as a strategy to reduce plastic pollution in soil and water.

2022 Green Analytical Chemistry 33 citations