Microplastics Are Destroying The Soil Food Web

The Guardian is reporting on a study carried out over the last year in China which looked into the effects of microplastics on populations of small creatures living in the soil.

We've known for a while that things were bad in the oceans, with more and more plastic ending up in the water before being broken down into microplastics which then enter the food chain at the bottom. This is a more insidious problem than the death of animals who are eating floating plastics, mistaking it for food, then starving as their stomachs are unable to process their indigestible meal. That's because four-fifths of all plastic material ever produced has ended up in landfills, rather than in the oceans.

The disruption this causes is initially at the microorganism level - microarthropods, nematodes, fungi and bacteria, These organisms are responsible for breaking down carbon, nitrogen and organic matter in the soil. 

The study measured the impact of low-density plastic fragments on these small life forms over a period of 287 days, comparing the affects of different amounts of plastic in the soil against control plots with no plastic. The results were significant reductions in the presence of life at all levels, with the most significant being a 62% reduction in the number of ants. Mites and nematode populations were also impacted at 15-20% less than the control areas.

This research shows the impact on the ecosystem which lies beneath our feet, what it can't tell us is what the long-term effects have been on a global scale. The concern is that plastic has been breaking up in landfills for decades and will continue to happen even if we were to stop burying plastic in landfill tomorrow. Nevertheless, that is what we must do.