Interactions between soil microplastics and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

doi:10.17521/cjpe.2025.0178

Abstract

Abstract:

As typical emerging contaminants with global distribution, microplastics are frequently detected in terrestrial ecosystems, including agricultural soils. Available evidences indicate that microplastics can alter soil physicochemical properties, and affect soil biota, plant performance, and ecosystem functions. As the most ubiquitous plant symbiotic fungi in soils, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi can enhance stress resistance of their host plants through multiple mechanisms and play a critical role in maintaining ecosystem stability. This review synthesizes current research advances in the interactions between soil microplastics and AM fungi. Microplastics in soil can directly affect AM fungi through adsorption and immobilization, or by releasing co-contaminants, and indirectly influence fungal colonization and community structure by altering soil properties (e.g., pH, nutrient availability), pollutant speciation and toxicity, microbial community composition and activity, and plant performance. On the other side, AM fungi exhibit strong tolerance to microplastics, and may alleviate negative impacts of microplastic contamination on plant and soil environment through multiple pathways, such as improving soil structure, mitigating plant nutrient limitations caused by microplastics, immobilizing microplastics via fungal structures (e.g., extraradical hyphae) to reduce their uptake and translocation by plants. Overall, the interactions between microplastics and AM fungi vary with microplastic characteristics (e.g., type, dose, size, and shape), plant species, soil properties, and exposure conditions, as a result it is still difficult to reach general conclusions. Finally, based on identifying current knowledge gaps, future research priorities are proposed to establish reliable quantification method for microplastics in the soil-plant systems, to assess the ecotoxicological effects of microplastic metabolites and composite pollution on AM fungi, and to reveal the influences of AM fungi on environmental behavior of soil microplastics and its ecological impacts, which will provide theoretical and technical support for the application of mycorrhizal technology to tackle soil microplastic pollution challenges.

Key words: emerging contaminant, ecological function, global change, soil pollution, environmental stress

WANG Fa-Yuan, ZHANG Xin, CHEN Bao-Dong. Interactions between soil microplastics and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi[J]. Chin J Plant Ecol, 2026, 50(3): 612-624.

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URL: https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/10.17521/cjpe.2025.0178

https://www.plant-ecology.com/EN/Y2026/V50/I3/612

Figures/Tables 4

Table 1 Effects of microplastics on mycorrhizal colonization rate

Fig. 1 Interactions between soil microplastics and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi.

Table 2 Effects of microplastics on plant performance and AM fungal inoculation

Fig. 2 Future research directions relevant to the interactions of soil microplastics with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi.

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