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.

微塑料（Microplastics, MPs）污染是一类新兴的全球变化因子，具备影响关键农业生态系统服务的潜在风险。微塑料以多样属性进入土壤，涵盖类型、形状、粒径、浓度及老化时长等特征，这些属性反映了其化学组成与来源的异质性。然而，不同属性的微塑料对农业生态系统服务的影响仍缺乏充分认知，这制约了高效风险评估与污染减缓举措的实施。本研究整合了6315组全球观测数据，旨在评估微塑料属性对关键农业生态系统服务的广泛影响，涉及作物生产力、生理机能、土壤碳固存、养分保留、水分调控以及土壤物理与微生物属性等维度。本次综合研究凸显了微塑料属性在决定其生态影响方面的核心作用，可为针对特定属性的风险评估及农业生态系统微塑料污染减缓策略提供重要科学依据。