Microbial ecosystem disruption under persistent organic pollutant stress: Consequences for soil biogeochemistry and environmental sustainability – A review

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are recalcitrant contaminants that significantly disrupt soil microbial communities and threaten ecosystem sustainability. This review evaluates how POPs alter soil microbial diversity, community composition, and functional potential, and explores their consequences for biogeochemical cycling and ecosystem health. We first synthesized evidence of taxonomic and functional shifts in microbial communities under POPs stress, highlighting patterns of diversity loss, suppression of nutrient-cycling groups, and selective enrichment of tolerant taxa. Mechanistic insights into microbial disruption reveal pollutant-induced membrane alterations, oxidative stress, metabolic inhibition, and genotoxicity, which are countered by adaptive strategies such as enzymatic induction, genetic exchange, and community succession. We then examined the effects of POPs on the carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles, documenting impaired decomposition, altered greenhouse gas fluxes, reduced nitrification and biological nitrogen fixation, and variable responses of phosphorus-related enzymes and genes. This review further integrates findings on the co-contamination of microplastics and heavy metals, showing synergistic, antagonistic, or neutral effects on microbial activity and enzymatic functions. By linking microbial disruptions with nutrient cycling and ecosystem stability, this synthesis identifies a critical knowledge gap: while POPs-driven shifts in microbial abundance and diversity are well documented, their functional consequences for long-term soil fertility, ecosystem resilience, and contaminant turnover remain poorly understood. This review thus provides a framework to advance mechanistic understanding and to guide future research addressing the ecological consequences of POPs contamination. • Explores how POPs disrupt soil microbial diversity, community composition, and nutrient-cycling groups. • Explain mechanisms of disruption including membrane damage, oxidative stress, and genetic adaptations. • Demonstrate POPs impairments in carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles, altering greenhouse gas fluxes. • Assess synergistic or antagonistic microbial effects under POPs co-contamination with microplastics and heavy metals.