Do microplastics always harm agroecosystem services? A global synthesis

Microplastics (MPs) pollution is an emerging global change factor with the potential to affect key agroecosystem services. MPs enter soils with diverse properties—including type, shape, size, concentration, and aging duration—reflecting their heterogeneous chemical compositions and sources. However, the impacts of MPs with varying properties on agroecosystem services remain poorly understood, limiting effective risk assessment and mitigation efforts. We synthesized 6,315 global observations to assess the broad impacts of microplastic properties on key agroecosystem services, including crop productivity, physiology, soil carbon sequestration, nutrient retention, water regulation, soil physical and microbial properties.This synthesis underscores the critical role of microplastic properties in determining their ecological impacts, providing essential insights for property-specific risk assessment and mitigation strategies to address microplastic pollution in agroecosystems.