Environment
Soil samples from a long-running UK experiment show that microplastic pollution has risen sharply in the past 50 years and is much higher in fields treated with organic or inorganic fertilisers
Slurry sprayed onto fields as fertiliser can contain high levels of microplastic
John Eveson/Flpa/imageBROKER/Shutterstock
Fertilisers are a major source of microplastic pollution in agricultural soil, a long-running experiment in the UK has shown, and this pollution has increased dramatically in the past 50 years.
Samuel Cusworth at Lancaster University, UK, and his colleagues looked at soil samples collected and archived at Rothamsted Research in an experiment that has been running since 1843. The samples came from three groups: one…
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