Fate of microplastics in agricultural soils amended with sewage sludge: Is surface water runoff a relevant environmental pathway?*

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216224%3A14310%2F22%3A00125412" target="_blank" >RIV/00216224:14310/22:00125412 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749121021023?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" >https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0269749121021023?via%3Dihub</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2021.118520" target="_blank" >10.1016/j.envpol.2021.118520</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Fate of microplastics in agricultural soils amended with sewage sludge: Is surface water runoff a relevant environmental pathway?*

Original language description

Sewage sludge used as agricultural fertilizer has been identified as an important source of microplastics (MPs) to the environment. However, the fate of MPs added to agricultural soils is largely unknown. This study investigated the fate of MPs in agricultural soils amended with sewage sludge and the role of surface water runoff as a mechanism driving their transfer to aquatic ecosystems. This was assessed using three experimental plots located in a semi-arid area of Central Spain, which were planted with barley. The experimental plots received the following treatments: (1) control or no sludge application; (2) historical sludge application, five years prior to the experiment; and (3) sludge application at the beginning of the experiment. MPs were analyzed in surface water runoff and in different soil layers to investigate transport and infiltration for one year. The sewage sludge used in our experiment contained 5972-7771 MPs/kg dw. Based on this, we estimated that about 16,000 MPs were added to the agricultural plot amended with sludge. As expected, the sludge application significantly increased the MP concentration in soils. The control plot contained low MP concentrations (31-120 MPs kg-1 dw), potentially originating from atmospheric deposition. The plot treated five years prior to the experiment con-tained 226-412 and 177-235 MPs kg-1 dw at the start and end of the experiment, respectively; while the recently treated plot contained 182-231 and 138-288 MPs kg-1 dw. Our study shows that MP concentrations remain relatively constant in agricultural soils and that the MP infiltration capacity is very low. Surface water runoff had a negligible influence on the export of MPs from agricultural soils, mobilizing only 0.2-0.4% of the MPs added with sludge. We conclude that, in semi-arid regions, agricultural soils can be considered as long-term accumulators of MPs.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

10511 - Environmental sciences (social aspects to be 5.7)

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2022

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Environmental Pollution

ISSN

0269-7491

e-ISSN

—

Volume of the periodical

293

Issue of the periodical within the volume

January 2022

Country of publishing house

GB - UNITED KINGDOM

Number of pages

8

Pages from-to

1-8

UT code for WoS article

000744242800006

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85119918900