Recently, soil contamination with microplastics has emerged as a serious global environmental concern that has necessitated more research on their potential impacts on soil biota. We investigated the acute and chronic toxicity of 2 different polystyrene microplastics, pure versus commercial (0–0.5% w/w in soil; sized 65–125 µm) on earthworm mortality, reproduction, and genotoxicity. Whereas the microplastics showed no acute toxicity in terms of mortality, reproduction was adversely affected in both parents (F0) and first filial generation (F1) of earthworms, with >50% reduction in juvenile production at 0.5% microplastics concentration in soil. Also, significant genotoxicity in terms of DNA damage was observed in the F0 and F1 earthworms. Chemical analysis of microplastic-exposed soils showed the presence of several benzene derivatives that are associated with polystyrene particles. Our study, for the first time to our knowledge, demonstrated the long-term adverse effects on earthworms of polystyrene microplastics even at environmentally relevant concentrations. The results have significant implications for risk assessment of polystyrene microplastics to soil biota. Environ Toxicol Chem 2021;40:2240–2246. © 2021 SETAC

中文翻译：

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环境相关浓度的聚苯乙烯微塑料对蚯蚓（Eisenia fetida）的慢性和跨代影响

最近，微塑料对土壤的污染已成为一个严重的全球环境问题，需要对其对土壤生物群的潜在影响进行更多研究。我们研究了两种不同聚苯乙烯微塑料的急性和慢性毒性，纯聚苯乙烯微塑料与商业微塑料（土壤中 0–0.5% w/w；大小 65–125 µm）对蚯蚓死亡率、繁殖和遗传毒性的影响。虽然微塑料在死亡率方面没有显示出急性毒性，但蚯蚓的父母（F0）和第一代（F1）的繁殖受到不利影响，当土壤中微塑料浓度为0.5％时，幼体产量减少> 50％。此外，在 F0 和 F1 蚯蚓中观察到 DNA 损伤方面的显着遗传毒性。对暴露于微塑料的土壤进行的化学分析表明，存在几种与聚苯乙烯颗粒相关的苯衍生物。据我们所知，我们的研究首次证明了聚苯乙烯微塑料对蚯蚓的长期不利影响，即使在环境相关浓度下也是如此。该结果对聚苯乙烯微塑料对土壤生物群的风险评估具有重要意义。环境毒物化学2021；40:2240–2246。© 2021 SETAC