Microplastics in soils have become an important threat for terrestrial systems as they may potentially alter the geochemical/biophysical soil environment and can interact with drought. As microplastics may affect soil water content, this could exacerbate the well\uffe2\uff80\uff90known negative effects of drought on ecosystem functionality. Thus, functions including litter decomposition, soil aggregation or those related with nutrient cycling can be altered. Despite this potential interaction, we know relatively little about how microplastics, under different soil water conditions, affect ecosystem functions and multifunctionality.
To address this gap, we performed an experiment using grassland plant communities growing in microcosms. Microplastic fibres (absent, present) and soil water conditions (well\uffe2\uff80\uff90watered, drought) were applied in a fully factorial design. At harvest, we measured soil ecosystem functions related to nutrient cycling (\uffce\uffb2\uffe2\uff80\uff90glucosaminidase, \uffce\uffb2\uffe2\uff80\uff90D\uffe2\uff80\uff90cellobiosidase, phosphatase, \uffce\uffb2\uffe2\uff80\uff90glucosidase enzymes), respiration, nutrient retention, pH, litter decomposition and soil aggregation (water stable aggregates). As terrestrial systems provide these functions simultaneously, we also assessed ecosystem multifunctionality, an index that encompasses the array of ecosystem functions measured here.
We found that the interaction between microplastic fibres and drought affected ecosystem functions and multifunctionality. Drought had negatively affected nutrient cycling by decreasing enzymatic activities by up to ~39%, while microplastics increased soil aggregation by ~18%, soil pH by ~4% and nutrient retention by up to ~70% by diminishing nutrient leaching. Microplastic fibres also impacted soil enzymes, respiration and ecosystem multifunctionality, but importantly, the direction of these effects depended on soil water status. That is, under well\uffe2\uff80\uff90watered conditions, these functions decreased with microplastic fibres by up to ~34% while under drought they had similar values irrespective of the microplastic presence, or tended to increase with microplastics. Litter decomposition had a contrary pattern increasing with microplastics by ~6% under well\uffe2\uff80\uff90watered conditions while decreasing to a similar percentage under drought.
Synthesis and applications. Single ecosystem functions can be positively or negatively affected by microplastics fibres depending on soil water status. However, our results suggest that microplastic fibres may cause negative effects on ecosystem soil multifunctionality of a similar magnitude as drought. Thus, strategies to counteract this new global change factor are necessary.
", "keywords": ["2. Zero hunger", "570", "ddc:630", "nutrient cycling", "litter decomposition", "500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik::570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie::570 Biowissenschaften; Biologie", "04 agricultural and veterinary sciences", "15. Life on land", "soil respiration", "01 natural sciences", "6. Clean water", "soil aggregation", "soil pH", "grasslands ecosystem", "13. Climate action", "nutrient leaching", "0401 agriculture", " forestry", " and fisheries", "ddc:570", "Institut f\u00fcr Biochemie und Biologie", "enzymatic activities", "0105 earth and related environmental sciences"]}, "links": [{"href": "https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1365-2664.13839"}, {"href": "https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13839"}, {"rel": "related", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/Journal%20of%20Applied%20Ecology", "name": "related record", "description": "related record", "type": "application/json"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.1111/1365-2664.13839", "name": "item", "description": "10.1111/1365-2664.13839", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.1111/1365-2664.13839"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2021-02-10T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "10.5061/dryad.n3s2m", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"updated": "2026-06-25T16:26:06Z", "type": "Dataset", "created": "2025-10-02", "title": "Data from: Urban trees reduce nutrient leaching to groundwater", "description": "unspecifiedMany urban waterways suffer from excess nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) feeding algal blooms, which cause lower water clarity and oxygen levels, bad odor and taste, and the loss of desirable species. Nutrient movement from land to water is likely to be influenced by urban vegetation, but there are few empirical studies addressing this. In this study, we examined whether or not urban trees can reduce nutrient leaching to groundwater, an important nutrient export pathway that has received less attention than stormwater. We characterized leaching beneath thirty-three trees of fourteen species, and seven open turfgrass areas, across three city parks in Saint Paul, Minnesota. We installed lysimeters at 60 cm depth to collect soil water approximately biweekly from July 2011 through October 2013, except during winter and drought periods, measured dissolved organic carbon (C), N, and P in soil water, and modeled water fluxes using the BROOK90 hydrologic model. We also measured soil nutrient pools (bulk C and N, KCl-extractable inorganic N, Brays-P), tree tissue nutrient concentrations (C, N, and P of green leaves, leaf litter, and roots), and canopy size parameters (leaf biomass, leaf area index) to explore correlations with nutrient leaching. Trees had similar or lower N leaching than turfgrass in 2012 but higher N leaching in 2013; trees reduced P leaching compared with turfgrass in both 2012 and 2013, with lower leaching under deciduous than evergreen trees. Scaling up our measurements to an urban subwatershed of the Mississippi River (~17,400 ha, containing roughly 1.5 million trees), we estimated that trees reduced P leaching to groundwater by 533 kg in 2012 (0.031 kg/ha or 3.1 kg/km2) and 1201 kg in 2013 (0.069 kg/ha or 6.9 kg/km2). Removing these same amounts of P using stormwater infrastructure would cost $2.2 million and $5.0 million per year (2012 and 2013 removal amounts, respectively).", "keywords": ["13. Climate action", "nutrient pollution", "plant traits", "11. Sustainability", "Anthropocene", "groundwater", "nutrient leaching", "Phosphorus", "15. Life on land", "urban trees", "Urban ecosystems", "6. Clean water"], "contacts": [{"organization": "Nidzgorski, Daniel A., Hobbie, Sarah E.,", "roles": ["creator"]}]}, "links": [{"href": "https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.n3s2m"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.5061/dryad.n3s2m", "name": "item", "description": "10.5061/dryad.n3s2m", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.5061/dryad.n3s2m"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2016-04-05T00:00:00Z"}}, {"id": "10.5281/zenodo.17592271", "type": "Feature", "geometry": null, "properties": {"license": "unspecified", "updated": "2026-06-25T16:28:53Z", "type": "Dataset", "title": "Synthesis of meta-analyses reveals global agroforestry's potential for improving soil health", "description": "The dataset.csv file compiles data from 26 meta-analyses that examine the effects of agroforestry on soil-related metrics at a global scale. These effects are reported both qualitatively and quantitatively, using natural log ratios accompanied by corresponding measures of uncertainty. Additionally, the dataset includes a quality assessment of each meta-analysis, based on 16 predefined criteria. It also provides a classification of effect sizes across seven soil outcome categories, various agroforestry systems, and distinct climatic regions. The primaryStudies.csv file compile the list of the primary studies provided by 22 of the 26 meta-analysis reporting on agroforestry and soil outcome that we identified.", "keywords": ["Soil Functions", "Water Regulation", "Soil Organic Carbon", "Soil Physical Quality", "Erosion", "Nutrient Leaching", "Soil Chemical Quality", "Soil Biological Quality"], "contacts": [{"organization": "Rubeaud, Camille Manon, Kay, Sonja, K\u00f6thke, Margret, Schievano, Andrea,", "roles": ["creator"]}]}, "links": [{"href": "https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17592271"}, {"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "10.5281/zenodo.17592271", "name": "item", "description": "10.5281/zenodo.17592271", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items/10.5281/zenodo.17592271"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection", "name": "collection", "description": "Collection", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main"}], "time": {"date": "2025-11-12T00:00:00Z"}}], "links": [{"rel": "self", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "This document as GeoJSON", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items?keywords=Nutrient+Leaching&f=json", "hreflang": "en-US"}, {"rel": "alternate", "type": "text/html", "title": "This document as HTML", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items?keywords=Nutrient+Leaching&f=html", "hreflang": "en-US"}, {"rel": "collection", "type": "application/json", "title": "Collection URL", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main", "hreflang": "en-US"}, {"type": "application/geo+json", "rel": "first", "title": "items (first)", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items?keywords=Nutrient+Leaching&", "hreflang": "en-US"}, {"rel": "last", "type": "application/geo+json", "title": "items (last)", "href": "https://repository.soilwise-he.eu/cat/collections/metadata:main/items?keywords=Nutrient+Leaching&offset=4", "hreflang": "en-US"}], "numberMatched": 4, "numberReturned": 4, "distributedFeatures": [], "timeStamp": "2026-06-25T20:38:09.004777Z"}