Analytical Techniques, Pollutant Features, and Ecological Hazards Related to Microplastics in Soils

Augustine Quek Tai Yong^*
*Correspondence: Augustine Quek Tai Yong, Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, 21 Lower Kent Ridge Rd, Singapore, Email:

Introduction

Because of its low cost, malleability, and durability, plastic goods are widely employed in daily life. About 9.1 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced worldwide in the last 50 years, with an annual growth rate of 8.7%. Plastic garbage is undoubtedly a major environmental challenge because of the large production and ineffective management. Polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) make up the majority of plastics. Although more plastic is being recycled, the majority of plastic items still end up in the environment. For instance, it is anticipated that in 2015, 250 million tonnes of plastic entered marine habitats.

Microplastics have been widely found in freshwater, marine, and terrestrial environments as well as in living things recently. Microplastics pollution is a growing worry that has been ranked as the second most pressing scientific problem in the realm of ecology and the environment. Recently, especially after 2014, the number of papers on microplastic pollution has rapidly increased.38.3% of these studies discussed marine microplastics. More than 5 trillion pieces of plastic waste are floating on the ocean's surface, according to Eriksen et al.More and more research indicates that freshwater environments are just as polluted with microplastic as marine ones. Additionally, a variety of organisms, including shore crabs, small fish, crustaceans, and bivalves that feed on filters, can absorb microplastics [1].

Description

Actually, the most bulk of the plastic trash in the oceans is a result of plastics usage by humans on land. Microplastics are thought to be a rising hazard to terrestrial ecosystems, with soils possibly serving as a greater plastics reservoir than the oceans. 90% of floodplain soils in Switzerland, according to research by Scheurer and Bigalke, contain microplastics (up to 55.5 mg kg1). According to Zhou et al., there were between 1.3 and 14712.5 number kg1 of micropalstics in coastal beach soils in Shanghai, China. Microplastic and mesoplastic pollution was found in agriculture soils in Shanghai, China, suburbs, according to a recent study. Microplastics introduced to the soil will store there, move there, erode, degrade, and seep into the groundwater, endangering creatures and having a negative impact on human health [2].

Although the widespread occurrence of microplastics has been shown in freshwater and marine systems, different study groups' analytical techniques varied.Because there are currently no standardised methods for estimating the amount of plastic in soils, there is a knowledge gap on the presence of microplastics in terrestrial ecosystems [3]. Organic matter, clay, minerals, and other solids and liquids are found in soil, which serves as a habitat for soil creatures. The significant amount of organic matter in soils comes from the skeletal remains of living things like plants and animals. These organic materials can be further digested to create humus, which is a reasonably stable compound. Fear is a Microplastic analysis in soils generally follows a similar procedure to that used in water column and sediment analysis displays a schematic representation of the methods used to analyse soil microplastics. The most crucial stage in the examination of microplastics is correctly collecting soil samples. Depending on different sorts of soil exploitation patterns, topsoil or deep soils within various strata were typically gathered. In order for subsequent analysis and quantification to accurately reflect the state of soil microplastics, sampling sites should be set up to reflect the overall or average level of (micro)plastic pollution in fields [4]. In order to determine the ratio of clay to organic matter, soil samples should be dried, sieved, floated, filtered, and segregated by density. The organic stuff is next digested and density extracted [5].

Conclusion

This review gives an overview of recent developments regarding microplastics in terrestrial ecosystems and covers scientific progress in analytical methodologies, pollutant features, and ecological concerns of microplastics in soils. It is obvious that the knowledge we have on microplastics in terrestrial habitats is growing quickly. However, there is still a significant knowledge vacuum about microplastic pollution and its effects on the ecosystem. Analytical methods, environmental concentrations, origins, destination, and ecological effects of microplastics in soils are just a few of the many issues that still raise a lot of problems.

Acknowledgement

None.

Conflict of Interest

There are no conflicts of interest by author.

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