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

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 modeling revealed that the effects of
microplastics strongly cascade through the soil food webs, leading to the
modification of microbial functioning with further potential consequences
on soil carbon and nutrient cycling. Our results highlight that taking
into account the effects of microplastics at different trophic levels is
important to elucidate the mechanisms underlying the ecological impacts of
microplastic pollution on soil functioning.