Microplastic polymer type impacts water infiltration and its own transport in soil.

Qihang Li, Anna Bogush, Marco Van De Wiel, Pan Wu, Ran Holtzman

Abstract read

In one paragraph

Article in iScience, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

1citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

Reassessing Whether Biodegradable Microplastics Are Environmentally Friendly: Differences in Earthworm Physiological Responses and Soil Carbon Function Impacts.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025
Article

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Qihang LiCollege of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China.

Anna BogushCentre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, Coventry, UK.

Marco Van De WielCentre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, Coventry, UK.

Pan WuCollege of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Guizhou University, Guiyang 550025, China.

Ran HoltzmanFluid and Complex Systems Research Centre, Coventry University, Coventry, UK.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Microplastics (MPs) pose a substantial threat to humans and ecosystems. How MPs move in soils is controlled by a large number of coupled parameters, including MPs and soil properties as well as hydrological and geochemical conditions. We conduct laboratory experiments where two commonly MPs types found in soils-polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polypropylene (PP)-are leached into an idealized soil analog (glass beads). We use time-lapse imaging to analyze the water flow pathways and spectroscopy to measure the MPs transport. We find that MPs impede water infiltration into preferential pathways, with a stronger effect for the more hydrophobic PP, and that PET is more mobile than PP. We explain this by the stronger impedance of PP on water flow that carries the MPs (the driving force), as well as PP surface charge enhancing its adsorption onto soil particles, and its lower density that limits downward transport. These findings advance our understanding the mechanisms underlying MP transport in soils.

Indexed as

Environmental sciencePollutionSoil hydrologySoil science

Identifiers

PMID40822903

DOI10.1016/j.isci.2025.113193

PMCPMC12356328

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.