The Distribution and Migration of Microplastics in Soils From Different Agricultural Farmlands in China

ABSTRACT The widespread occurrence of microplastics (MPs) in agricultural soils raises global concern, yet a systematic understanding of their national‐scale distribution and drivers remains elusive. Here, we present the first comprehensive, nationwide analysis of MPs in Chinese farmland soils, integrating abundance, morphology, and polymer data from 169 sites across 31 provinces with regional agricultural practices and soil properties. The results showed that the abundance of MPs in Chinese farmland soils ranged from 240 to 12,720 items kg −1 . Among the identified MPs, films were the predominant morphological category, accounting for 58.4%, while small‐sized particles dominated across dimensional distributions, accounting for 65.5%. Polyethylene (PE) was consistently the most prevalent polymer in all soil samples analyzed, accounting for 36.5%. The analysis results further clarified the key driving factors of MP distribution. The accumulation of MPs in soil environments resulting from local agricultural and human activities, or atmospheric deposition, may affect the transport and accumulation of small‐sized MPs. Soil properties also affected the distribution characteristics of MPs. The abundance of MPs and pH were significantly and negatively correlated ( p < 0.01). Soil electrical conductivity (EC) had a significant positive correlation with the abundance of fiber MPs ( p < 0.05), and coarse sand content was positively correlated with pellet MP counts ( p < 0.05). This study establishes that MP pollution in Chinese farmland is a spatially structured mosaic, governed by both human input and soil‐specific retention. Our findings provide an empirical basis for targeted source control (e.g., plastic mulching film management) and advance risk assessment by incorporating soil‐mediated fate processes.