Papers

61,005 results
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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 agroecosystems: A review of effects on soil biota and key soil functions

This review examines how microplastic and nanoplastic contamination in agricultural soils affects soil organisms and ecological functions. Researchers found that plastics enter farmland through multiple pathways including plastic mulch, sewage sludge, and irrigation water, and once present they alter soil properties and exhibit toxic behavior toward soil biota. The study identifies significant knowledge gaps about the long-term impacts of microplastic accumulation on agricultural productivity and food safety.

2022 Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science 79 citations
Article Tier 2

Micro and nano-plastics on environmental health: a review on future thrust in agro-ecotoxicology management

This review examines the growing body of evidence on how microplastics and nanoplastics affect plant health, soil microbial communities, and agricultural productivity. The study highlights that plastic accumulation in agricultural soils can alter crop growth and yield while disrupting soil ecosystem dynamics, and calls for greater attention to agro-ecotoxicology management to address these emerging threats to food production.

2025 Environmental Geochemistry and Health 1 citations
Article Tier 2

A Review on Microplastic in the Soils and Their Impact on Soil Microbes, Crops and Humans

This review examines microplastic contamination in agricultural soils, detailing how microplastic particles act as vectors for toxic organic pollutants and heavy metals, disrupting soil physicochemical properties, microbial communities, crop growth, and ultimately entering the human food chain.

2022 International Journal of Research -GRANTHAALAYAH 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of microplastics on soil properties: Current knowledge and future perspectives

This review examines how microplastics affect soil health, including changes to soil structure, chemistry, and the microbial communities that keep soil fertile. The effects vary depending on the type, shape, and amount of plastic present, but in many cases microplastics alter nutrient availability and can even influence greenhouse gas emissions from soil. These changes could threaten crop productivity and food safety, since microplastics are now found in agricultural soils worldwide.

2021 Journal of Hazardous Materials 837 citations
Article Tier 2

Metagenomic analysis reveals soil microbiome responses to microplastics and ZnO nanoparticles in an agricultural soil

Researchers used advanced genetic analysis to show that microplastics and zinc oxide nanoparticles together alter soil microbe communities in ways that disrupt nutrient cycling, including carbon and nitrogen processing. Notably, biodegradable PLA plastic caused more harm to fungal communities than conventional plastics like polyethylene, challenging the assumption that biodegradable plastics are always safer for the environment.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials 17 citations
Article Tier 2

Comparative effect of silver nanoparticles on maize rhizoplane microbiome in initial phaseof plants growth

This is not about microplastics — it is a soil microbiology study examining how five different forms of silver nanoparticles with varying surface properties affect the bacterial and fungal communities in the root zone of maize seedlings.

2024 International Agrophysics 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics regulate soil microbial activities: Evidence from catalase, dehydrogenase, and fluorescein diacetate hydrolase

This review examines how microplastics affect the activity of soil microorganisms, finding that results range widely from boosting to suppressing microbial function depending on the type, size, and age of the plastic, as well as soil conditions. Smaller nanoplastics can directly damage microbial cells, while larger microplastics alter soil chemistry and the toxicity of co-existing pollutants. Since soil microbes drive processes critical to agriculture and food production, these disruptions could have downstream effects on human food systems.

2024 Environmental Research 39 citations
Article Tier 2

Impacts of Nano- and Microplastic Contamination on Soil Organisms and Soil–Plant Systems

Nano- and microplastic contamination was found to negatively affect soil organic matter dynamics and the activity of soil organisms. The research adds to growing evidence that plastic particles impair the biological processes that maintain soil health and fertility.

2025 Microplastics 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Soil under stress: The importance of soil life and how it is influenced by (micro)plastic pollution

This review examines how plastic pollution in soil disrupts soil organisms and microorganisms that regulate essential ecosystem functions, finding that plastic alters soil chemistry, physical structure, and microbial communities in ways that threaten primary production and carbon cycling.

2022 Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal 78 citations
Article Tier 2

How microplastics are destroying soil and human health

This review examined how microplastics harm soil health — disrupting soil structure, water retention, microbial communities, and nutrient cycling — and how soil degradation translates into risks for human health through food and water contamination. It argues that soil microplastic pollution deserves equivalent attention to aquatic contamination.

2024
Review Tier 2

Formation, behavior, properties and impact of micro- and nanoplastics on agricultural soil ecosystems (A Review)

This review provides a comprehensive look at how micro and nanoplastics affect agricultural soil ecosystems, covering their sources, movement through soil, and impacts on soil organisms and crop growth. The authors found that microplastics can alter soil structure, reduce beneficial microbial activity, and affect plant nutrient uptake. These changes to farmland soils could ultimately threaten food security and introduce microplastics into the human food supply.

2023 NanoImpact 55 citations
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

The individual and combined effects of polystyrene and silver nanoparticles on nitrogen transformation and bacterial communities in an agricultural soil

Researchers ran a 45-day soil experiment combining polystyrene micro- and nanoplastics with silver nanoparticles, finding that the silver nanoparticles dominated nitrogen cycle disruption while polystyrene nanoplastics partially offset this by upregulating anammox genes — with particle size proving a critical variable in predicting combined ecological risk.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 41 citations
Article Tier 2

Health Effects and Safety Assurance of Nanoparticles in Vulnerable Generations

This review summarizes the occurrence of microplastics in agricultural soils globally, examining sources including plastic mulch films, sewage sludge, and irrigation water. Long-term accumulation is projected to reduce crop yields and alter soil microbial communities.

2022 Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of long-term microplastic pollution on soil heavy metals and metal resistance genes: Distribution patterns and synergistic effects

Using metagenomics on cropland soils with long-term plastic film residues, researchers found that microplastic pollution alters heavy metal distribution and promotes the enrichment of metal resistance genes in soil microbial communities, with implications for food security.

2023 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 26 citations
Article Tier 2

Metagenomic analysis reveals gene taxonomic and functional diversity response to microplastics and cadmium in an agricultural soil

Using advanced DNA analysis of soil microbes, researchers found that different types of microplastics (polyethylene, polystyrene, and PLA bioplastic) each had distinct effects on soil microbial communities in agricultural land. Microplastics had a greater impact on microbes than cadmium, a toxic heavy metal, and high doses of PLA bioplastic notably increased genes linked to disease-causing organisms and nitrogen metabolism. This suggests that even biodegradable plastics can significantly alter soil health in farmland.

2024 Environmental Research 37 citations
Article Tier 2

Unveiling the impacts of microplastic pollution on soil health: A comprehensive review

This review summarizes research from 2021-2024 on how microplastics in agricultural soil harm crop growth, reduce soil organism survival and reproduction, disrupt microbial communities, and alter nutrient cycling. These soil health impacts are relevant to human health because they can compromise food safety and allow microplastics to enter the food supply through contaminated crops.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 44 citations
Article Tier 2

Nanoplastics in the soil environment: Analytical methods, occurrence, fate and ecological implications

This review covered analytical methods, occurrence data, environmental fate, and ecotoxicological effects of nanoplastics in soils, finding that nanoplastics can alter soil chemistry, physical structure, and biota in ways that threaten both natural and agricultural ecosystem functions. The authors identify standardization of nanoplastic detection in soil as a critical research gap.

2022 Environmental Pollution 73 citations
Article Tier 2

Investigation of Soil-Dwelling Bacterial Community Changes Induced by Microplastic Ex posure Using Amplicon Sequencing

Researchers analyzed soil bacterial community composition after microplastic contamination, finding that different polymer types caused distinct shifts in microbial diversity and functional groups, with implications for soil nutrient cycling and agricultural productivity.

2025 Korean Science Education Society for the Gifted
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
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and nanoplastics in soil: Sources, impacts, and solutions for soil health and environmental sustainability

This review examines how microplastics and nanoplastics enter soil through farming activities, sewage sludge, and air deposition, and how they affect soil structure, water retention, and nutrient availability. The tiny plastic particles can harm beneficial soil microorganisms and potentially enter the food chain through crops, raising concerns about long-term impacts on both soil health and human well-being.

2024 Journal of Environmental Quality 31 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

Micro (nano) plastic pollution: The ecological influence on soil-plant system and human health.

This review examines how micro- and nanoplastics affect soil health, plant growth, and food quality, finding that these particles accumulate in plant root systems and can reduce crop yields and alter nutritional content. Since contaminated soil and water are increasingly delivering microplastics to food crops, these findings are directly relevant to agricultural food safety.

2021 The Science of the total environment