Microplastics negatively affect soil fauna but stimulate microbial activity: insights from a field-based microplastic addition experiment.

ABSTRACT: Microplastics are recognized as an emerging contaminant worldwide. Although microplastics have been shown to strongly affect organisms in aquatic environments, less is known about whether and how microplastics can affect different taxa within a soil community, and it is unclear whether these effects can cascade through soil food webs. By conducting a microplastic manipulation experiment, i.e. adding low-density polyethylene fragments in the field, we found that microplastic addition significantly affected the composition and abundance of microarthropod and nematode communities. Contrary to soil fauna, we found only small effects of microplastics on the biomass and structure of soil microbial communities. Nevertheless, structural equation modelling revealed that the effects of microplastics

SUBMITTER: Lin D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7542786 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature