Papers

20 results
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Article Tier 2

Influence of polyethylene-microplastic on environmental behaviors of metals in soil

Researchers investigated how polyethylene microplastics affect the adsorption, desorption, and bioavailability of heavy metals in soil. They found that adding microplastics altered how metals bind to soil particles and increased the mobility of certain metals like cadmium and lead. The study suggests that microplastic contamination in soils may change the environmental behavior of heavy metals, potentially increasing their availability to plants and soil organisms.

2021 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 93 citations
Article Tier 2

Metal adsorption by microplastics in aquatic environments under controlled conditions: exposure time, pH and salinity

Scientists systematically varied pH, salinity, and exposure time during metal adsorption experiments on different microplastic types, finding that pH had the greatest influence on metal uptake, with higher pH favoring adsorption of copper, lead, and cadmium onto most tested polymers.

2020 International Journal of Environmental & Analytical Chemistry 62 citations
Article Tier 2

Response of soil heavy metal forms and bioavailability to the application of microplastics across five years in different soil types

Researchers conducted a five-year experiment examining how microplastics affect the chemical forms and bioavailability of heavy metals across five different soil types. They found that microplastics generally reduced the readily available forms of heavy metals while increasing the mineral- and organic-bound forms, and that the bioconcentration of chromium and lead decreased substantially. The study suggests that soil type and exposure duration both play important roles in how microplastics influence heavy metal behavior in soils.

2024 Journal of Hazardous Materials 14 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of soil environmental factors and UV aging on Cu2+ adsorption on microplastics

Laboratory experiments and modeling showed that copper adsorption onto microplastics was significantly influenced by soil environmental factors (pH, organic matter, ionic strength) and the degree of UV aging of the plastic particles. Understanding these context-dependent sorption behaviors is important for predicting how microplastics transport heavy metals in real agricultural soils.

2019 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 144 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics change soil properties, heavy metal availability and bacterial community in a Pb-Zn-contaminated soil

This study found that adding six different types of microplastics to soil contaminated with lead and zinc changed the soil's chemistry, increased the availability of those toxic metals, and shifted the bacterial communities living in the soil. Higher doses of microplastics caused greater disruption, reducing microbial diversity and altering nutrient cycling. The findings suggest that microplastics in contaminated soil could make heavy metals more likely to enter plants and the food chain.

2021 Journal of Hazardous Materials 497 citations
Article Tier 2

Exploring the interaction between microplastics and heavy metals: unveiling the impact of microplastics on lead sorption and desorption in soil

Researchers conducted batch experiments to examine how high-density polyethylene microplastics affect the adsorption and desorption of lead in agricultural soil under different conditions, finding that equilibrium was reached within 120 minutes and that microplastics altered lead sorption kinetics. The presence of HDPE microplastics changed soil's capacity to retain or release lead, which has implications for heavy metal mobility and crop uptake in contaminated farmland.

2023 Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 20 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics can affect soil properties and chemical speciation of metals in yellow-brown soil

Researchers added five polymer types (LLDPE, PA, PU, PS, LDPE) at various concentrations to yellow-brown soil and measured their effects on soil physicochemical properties and the speciation of cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc. MPs shifted heavy metal distribution toward more bioavailable fractions, suggesting that microplastic contamination can increase the extractability and potential toxicity of co-occurring metals in soil.

2022 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 79 citations
Article Tier 2

Insights into How Degradable Microplastics Enhance Cu2+ Mobility in Soil Through Interfacial Interaction

Degradable microplastics were found to enhance the mobility of copper ions in soil through interfacial chemical interactions, potentially spreading heavy metal contamination beyond its original source. The study highlights an unexpected way that biodegradable plastics can worsen co-contaminant risks in polluted soils.

2025 Toxics 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Assessing the Impact of Soil Humic Substances, Textural Fractions on the Sorption of Heavy Metals (Cd, Pb)

Researchers assessed how soil humic substances and textural fractions influence the sorption of cadmium and lead in different Slovak soil types. The study found that the type and quantity of humic materials significantly affect heavy metal retention, which is relevant to understanding how contaminants interact with soil-bound microplastics.

2024 Applied Sciences 12 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics Increase Soil pH and Decrease Microbial Activities as a Function of Microplastic Shape, Polymer Type, and Exposure Time

Researchers tested twelve different types of microplastics in soil and found that their effects on soil health depended heavily on the shape, plastic type, and how long they were present. Foam and fragment shapes raised soil pH the most, while polyethylene foam increased soil respiration, and several types reduced the activity of important soil enzymes. These findings help explain why microplastic studies often show conflicting results, since the specific characteristics of the plastic matter as much as its presence.

2021 Frontiers in Environmental Science 389 citations
Article Tier 2

Research Progress on the Adsorption and Their Mechanisms of Heavy Metal in Soil By Microplastics

This review examines how microplastics adsorb heavy metals in soil environments, summarizing mechanisms including electrostatic attraction, surface complexation, and hydrophobic interactions that make MPs effective vectors for metal transport and bioavailability.

2025 International journal of agriculture and food sciences research.
Article Tier 2

Contrasting effects of physical and chemical aging of microplastics on the transport of lead and copper in sandy soil

Physical aging (mechanical weathering) and chemical aging (oxidation) of microplastics had contrasting effects on their surface chemistry and biological impacts, highlighting that different environmental degradation pathways produce functionally distinct particles. Researchers need to distinguish between aged particle types to accurately assess microplastic risks.

2025 Environmental Research 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Traditional microplastics alter microbial community, metabolites and nutrition in heavy metal-contaminated coastal saline soil

Researchers added three types of microplastics to coastal soil already contaminated with heavy metals (cadmium, copper, and zinc), finding that the plastics altered soil chemistry, shifted microbial communities, disrupted metabolic pathways, and changed how available the toxic metals were to organisms. These findings suggest microplastics can worsen existing heavy metal pollution by changing how metals move through soil ecosystems.

2025 Communications Earth & Environment 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Insight into the interactions between microplastics and heavy metals in agricultural soil solution: adsorption performance influenced by microplastic types

Environmental-simulating microplastics (aged under environmental conditions) showed higher cadmium and chromium adsorption capacity than commercial microplastics in agricultural soil solutions, with surface oxidation increasing adsorption—suggesting that aged microplastics are more effective co-transporters of heavy metals in contaminated agricultural soils.

2025 Environmental Science Processes & Impacts 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in soils with contrasting texture, organic carbon and mineralogy: changes in cadmium adsorption forms and their mobility in soil columns

This study investigated how high-density polyethylene microplastics alter the behavior of cadmium — a toxic heavy metal — in soils with different textures, organic carbon contents, and mineral compositions. Using soil column experiments, researchers found that microplastics changed how cadmium binds to soil particles and how easily it leaches downward, with effects varying depending on the soil type and microplastic particle size. Since cadmium is a known carcinogen and agricultural soils commonly contain both microplastics and heavy metals, understanding their interactions is critical for food safety.

2025 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Adsorption of three bivalent metals by four chemical distinct microplastics

Researchers measured the sorption of copper, cadmium, and lead onto four types of microplastic particles — including chlorinated PE, PVC, and two PE variants — finding that higher crystallinity and surface area drove greater metal adsorption, and that all four plastics had different capacities for each metal.

2020 Chemosphere 306 citations
Article Tier 2

Metal type and aggregate microenvironment govern the response sequence of speciation transformation of different heavy metals to microplastics in soil

A five-month soil incubation experiment showed that polyethylene microplastics shifted heavy metals like zinc and cadmium from bioavailable forms toward organic-bound forms in soil aggregates, reducing their immediate availability to plants and organisms. The effect varied by metal type and aggregate size, suggesting microplastics can alter the environmental behavior of multiple co-contaminants simultaneously.

2020 The Science of The Total Environment 160 citations
Article Tier 2

Use of EDTA and CaCl2 Extraction Methods to Predict the Bioavailability of Heavy Metals in Soils Polluted with Microplastics

This study tested how seven common types of microplastics affect the availability of heavy metals like lead, cadmium, and copper in soil. Some microplastics, like high-density polyethylene, reduced lead movement but increased cadmium and cobalt availability by 10-20%. The findings show that microplastics in agricultural soil can change how toxic metals behave, potentially affecting which contaminants get absorbed by food crops.

2025 Materials 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Molecular-level insights of microplastic-derived soluble organic matter and heavy metal interactions in different environmental occurrences through EEM-PARAFAC and FT-ICR MS

Researchers used advanced spectroscopic techniques to show that dissolved organic matter leached from microplastics forms stable complexes with copper, lead, and cadmium, and found that free-floating microplastic-derived organic matter enhances heavy metal mobility through porous soils, while settled microplastic organic matter retains metals — altering contaminant transport depending on environmental state.

2024 Journal of Hazardous Materials 34 citations
Article Tier 2

Evaluating the impacts of microplastics on agricultural soil physical, chemical properties, and toxic metal availability: An emerging concern for sustainable agriculture

This study tested how five common types of microplastics affect soil properties and heavy metal availability in agricultural soil over 90 days. Microplastics changed soil structure, nutrient levels, and water-holding capacity, and actually reduced the availability of toxic heavy metals at higher plastic concentrations -- highlighting the complex ways plastic pollution is altering the farmland that produces our food.

2025 PLoS ONE 18 citations