Evaluating Plastic Residues' impact on Plant Health and Soil Ecosystems

Plastic residues, including microplastics, can negatively impactplant health by interfering with soil properties, nutrient uptake,and overall physiological functions. They can disrupt soilmicrobial communities, reduce organic matter, and alter waterdynamics, ultimately hindering plant growth and development.Plastic pollution is one of the global pressing environmentalproblems, threatening the health of aquatic and terrestrialecosystems. However, the influence of plastic residues andmicroplastics (MPs) in soil ecosystems remains unclear. Weconducted a global meta-analysis to quantify the effect ofplastic residues and MPs on indicators of global soil ecosystemfunctioning (i.e. soil physicochemical properties, plant and soilanimal health, abundance and diversity of soilmicroorganisms). Concentrations of plastic residues and MPswere 1-2700 kg ha-1 and 0.01-600,000 mg kg-1, respectively,based on 6223 observations. Results show that plastic residuesand MPs can decrease soil wetting front vertical and horizontalmovement, dissolved organic carbon, and total nitrogen contentof soil by 14%, 10%, 9%, and 7%, respectively. Plant heightand root biomass were decreased by 13% and 14% in thepresence of plastic residues and MPs, while the body mass andreproduction rate of soil animals decreased by 5% and 11%,respectively. However, soil enzyme activity increased by 7% to441% in the presence of plastic residues and MPs. For soilmicroorganisms, plastic residues and MPs can change theabundance of several bacteria phyla and families, but the effectsvary between different bacteria.