Science of the Total Environment 654 (2019) 576–582

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Science of the Total Environment

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv

Effects of plastic contamination on water evaporation and desiccation

cracking in soil
Yong Wan a, Chenxi Wu b,⁎, Qiang Xue a, Xinminnan Hui a
a
State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430071, China
b
State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, China

H I G H L I G H T S G R A P H I C A L A B S T R A C T

• Plastic film in soil significantly increased

the rate of soil water evaporation.
• Plastic film in soil caused desiccation
cracking on soil surface.
• Plastic film increases desiccation shrink-
age rate but reduces the final shrinkage
ratio.
• The observed effect in soil was affected
by the size and concentration of the
plastic film.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Environmental contamination of plastics is becoming an issue of concern globally. Detection of plastics, particu-
Received 15 September 2018 larly microplastics, has been increasingly reported in both marine environments and inland waters. Recent work
Received in revised form 6 November 2018 has indicated that soil in terrestrial environments has also been contaminated by plastics. Research has also
Accepted 8 November 2018
shown that plastics can have adverse effects on soil biota. However, the impact of plastics on soil physical prop-
Available online 10 November 2018
erties is still unclear. In this work, effects of plastic film of different sizes at environmental relevant concentrations
Editor: Jay Gan on water evaporation and desiccation cracking in two clay soils were studied. The results showed that the pres-
ence of plastics in soil significantly increased the rate of soil water evaporation by creating channels for water
Keywords: movement. The effect was more pronounced in soils treated with 2 mm plastics than in soils treated with 5
Microplastics and 10 mm plastics, and increased with increasing plastic content. Desiccation cracking was observed on the sur-
Soil face of soil treated with 5 and 10 mm plastics likely due to the destruction of soil structural integrity. While 2 mm
Water evaporation plastics increased the rate of desiccation shrinkage, the shrinkage ratio was reduced at the residual stage. Results
Desiccation cracking from this work suggest that plastic contamination can alter the water cycle in soils, which may exacerbate soil
water shortages and affect the vertical transport of pollutants. Further work is required to study the effects of
plastics of other shapes, and laboratory observations should be tested at field scale.
© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

World production of plastics reached 335 million tonnes in 2016

⁎ Corresponding author at: Donghu South Road #7, Wuhan 430072, China. (PlasticsEurope, 2018). Plastic has infiltrated nearly every aspect of
E-mail address: chenxi.wu@ihb.ac.cn (C. Wu). people's lives. Although the use of plastic products provides great

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.11.123
0048-9697/© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 Y. Wan et al. / Science of the Total Environment 654 (2019) 576–582
convenience, huge amounts of plastic wastes have been generated and
are causing serious environmental problems due to improper disposal
(Rochman et al., 2013; Thompson et al., 2009). Discarded plastics are
slowly breaking down in the environment and can be transported
from land to oceans (Jambeck et al., 2015). Plastic debris of under
5 mm are considered to be microplastics, which have attracted growing
attention in recent years due to their ubiquity in the environment and to
their potential adverse impacts on organisms and ecosystems (de Souza
Machado et al., 2018; Galloway and Lewis, 2016).
Most existing work has focused on microplastics in the aquatic envi-
ronment, so limited information is available with regards to the occur-
rence, fate, and impact of microplastics in soil (Hurley and Nizzetto,
2018; Rillig, 2012). Plastics that enter the soil environment can originate
from a variety of sources, such as the use of mulch film, land application
of biosolids, littering and illegal dumping, flooding, atmospheric trans-
port, and overland runoff (Chae and An, 2018; Ng et al., 2018). In agri-
cultural fields amended with biosolids, synthetic fibers were detected
and their presence was attributed to the prior application of biosolids
(Zubris and Richards, 2005). In arable soil from southwestern China,
the abundance of plastic particles was found to range from 7100 to
42,960 items/kg (Zhang and Liu, 2018). In coastal soil adjacent to the
Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea, the abundance of microplastics varied
from 1.3 to 14,712 items/kg (Zhou et al., 2018). These results show
that the soil environment is also contaminated by plastic waste.
Once in the soil, plastics can be further degraded into small particles
via physical, chemical, and biological processes (Peng et al., 2017).
Microplastics in soil can be ingested by soil organisms, which can affect
their growth, reproduction, gut microbiota, and immune system
(Lwanga et al., 2016; Rodriguez-Seijo et al., 2017; Zhu et al., 2018). It
has also been found that microplastic exposure stimulated fluorescein
diacetate hydrolase (FDA) activities in soil, and increased levels of
microplastics resulted in increased nutrient contents in the soil dis-
solved organic matter (DOM) (Liu et al., 2017). Furthermore, plastics
can release plastic additives, act as vectors for the transport of other pol-
lutants in the soil environment, and increase the exposure of soil organ-
isms to those pollutants (Gaylor et al., 2013; Hodson et al., 2017).
Besides the above impacts on soil organisms, plastics might also alter
the physico-chemical properties of soil by changing its texture and
structure due to the distinctive characteristics of plastics compared
with natural soil components. Research has shown that microplastics
change the permeability and water retention of the sandy soil, thus af-
fecting the evaporation characteristics of the sandy soil (Machado
et al., 2018). Unlike sandy soil, clay soil will shrink and crack during
the evaporation process (Krisnanto et al., 2016). The presence of cracks
is directly related to the transport of water and solutes in soil (Greve
et al., 2010; Wells and Hancock, 2014; Zhang et al., 2015).
Many previous studies have explored the mechanisms of soil desic-
cation cracking (Cordero et al., 2017; Kodikara et al., 1998;
Lakshmikantha et al., 2009). During the evaporation process, desicca-
tion cracking is an intrinsic property of clay soil, and the cracking char-
acteristics are affected by soil mineral composition, soil pore structure,
and the external environment. When soil is contaminated with plastics,
its pore structure, bulk density, and water holding capacity can be al-
tered (Machado et al., 2018); as a result, soil water evaporation and
shrinkage cracking may also be affected. However, no study has yet
been performed to address this issue. Therefore, the purpose of this
work was to investigate the effect of plastics of different sizes on
water evaporation and crack formation in soil. Influencing mechanisms
and the consequent impacts on soil were also considered.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Materials
Two topsoils (0–20 cm) from Wuhan, China were tested in this ex-
periment. They were collected from: 1) a park; and 2) a paddy field.
577
The soil samples were air-dried, ground, and passed through a 2 mm
sieve. Specific gravity, plasticity limit, liquid limit, and particle size
were determined according to standard soil test methods (GB/T
50123-1999, 1999), and mineral composition was determined by X-
ray diffraction (XRD). Selected properties of the tested soils are listed
in Table 1.
Plastics used in the experiment were prepared from polyethylene
(PE) film for agriculture with a thickness of 0.12 mm and a density of
0.72 g/cm3. The PE film was cut into squares with side lengths of 2, 5,
and 10 mm.
2.2. Experiment setup
Plastic film of different sizes was added to the sieved soil at a mass
ratios of 0.5% and 1%. In a previous study, soil samples from an industrial
area were found to contain 0.03% to 6.7% (mass basis) microplastics
(Fuller and Gautam, 2016). Therefore, the mass ratios tested in this
work are within an environmentally-relevant concentration range. A
total of nine treatments were prepared: S1-10 mm-1%, S1-5 mm-1%,
S1-2 mm-1%, S1-10 mm-0.5%, S1-5 mm-0.5%, S1-2 mm-0.5%, S2-
10 mm-1%, S2-5 mm-1%, and S2-2 mm-1%. S1 and S2 represent soil 1
and soil 2; 2 mm, 5 mm, and 10 mm represent the size of the plastic
film; and 0.5% and 1% represent the mass ratio of plastic added. Soil
samples without the addition of plastic film were used as control.
Three replicates were prepared for each treatment and control.
All treatments were thoroughly mixed for 5 min using a blender.
Water was added to 1.2 times the liquid limit of the soil, and mixed
for 15 min. Slurry samples, with an initial water content greater than
the soil liquid limit, can reduce the influence of the structural properties
of remolded samples on test results, and have often been used to study
soil evaporation and shrinkage characteristics (Tang et al., 2011a; Tang
et al., 2011b). The slurry was poured into a copper tray with an inner di-
ameter of 22 cm and a depth of 3 cm. The tray was shaken on a vibratory
compactor for 5 min and then the edges and surface of the tray were
smoothed with a spatula. The prepared samples were sealed with pre-
servative film for 48 h to ensure the water was evenly distributed.
After 48 h, the tray was placed in an oven at 60 °C to ensure that each
sample experienced the same ambient temperature and humidity dur-
ing the experiment. The weight of the soil was measured hourly. The
evaporation of water (EWC) was calculated by subtracting the current
water content from the initial water content (IWC) of the soil sample.
The surface of the soil samples was captured with a digital camera.
2.3. Shrinkage analysis
During the evaporation process, some samples showed desiccation
shrinkage cracks on the surface, and others only showed boundary
shrinkage (see Section 3.2). For samples with cracks, the number of
cracks (NC) and the total crack length (TCL) were determined to evalu-
ate the effects of plastic on soil shrinkage cracking. The crack parameters
(NC and TCL) were analyzed following (Tang et al., 2008).
For samples with only boundary shrinkage, the shrinkage ratio was
used to analyze the effects of plastic on soil shrinkage characteristics.
The original images of the soil surface at different times were converted
into binary images, where black represents shrunken regions and white
represents soil. The total area of the shrunken region was calculated by
counting the black pixels using Matlab 2010b (MathWorks Inc., Natick,
MA, USA). The shrinkage ratio was calculated as the ratio of the total
shrinkage area to the initial surface area of the sample.
2.4. Statistical analysis
The evaporation rate was estimated by linear regression of the evap-
oration curves in the constant evaporation stage (see Section 3.1). The
calculated slopes of the evaporation curves were used to compare the
rates of evaporation in each treatment, using a one-way Analysis of
578 Y. Wan et al. / Science of the Total Environment 654 (2019) 576–582
Table 1
Properties of the tested soil.
Soil Plasticity limit (%) Liquid limit (%)
Soil 1 25.3 44.5
Soil 2 27.0 56.7
a
According to the Unified Soil Classification System (ASTM, 2017).
b
Low liquid limit clay.
c
High liquid limit clay.
Variance (ANOVA). Number of cracks and total crack length on the soil
surface for different treatments were compared using Mann-Whitney
Test. A confidence level of 95% was used. Statistical analysis was per-
formed using SPSS ver.13.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). All figures
were plotted using GraphPad Prism 6 software (La Jolla, CA, USA).
3. Results
3.1. Effects of different sizes of plastics on soil water evaporation
Fig. 1 shows the changes in the evaporation of water with time in
each of the soil treatments with 1% plastic added. The evaporation of
soil water can be divided into two stages: (1) in the constant evapora-
tion stage, the EWC increased linearly with time and the ratio of EWC/
IWC was b0.87; and (2) in the residual stage, the rate of EWC increase
gradually slowed and approached the IWC. The addition of plastics to
the soils significantly increased the rate of evaporation in both tested
soils (p b 0.01). The evaporation rate was significantly higher in the
soils treated with 2 mm plastics than in soil alone or in soils treated
with other plastic sizes (p b 0.01). In comparison to the unamended
soils (S1 and S2), the evaporation rate increased by 25.9% and 30.2%
for soil 1 (S1-2 mm-1%) and soil 2 (S2-2 mm-1%), respectively, by the
end of the constant evaporation stage. The evaporation rate was signif-
icantly higher (p b 0.01) in soil 1 with the addition of 5 mm plastics (S1-
5 mm-1%) than with the addition of 10 mm plastics (S1-10 mm-1%).
However, no difference was observed in those two treatments for soil
2 (S2-5 mm-1% and S2-10 mm-1%) (p = 0.912).
Fig. 1. Changes in the evaporation of water with time in soil 1 (A) and soil 2 (B), showing the effects of plastics of different sizes at a mass ratio of 1% (Each point represents the mean value
of three replicates).
Plasticity index Soil classificationa Particle size (%) Mineral composition (%)
19.2 CLb b2 μm: 38.5 Quartz: 53.49
2–75 μm: 58.9 Albite: 13.16
75–2000 μm: 2.6 Illite: 20.17
Montmorillonite: 13.18
29.7 CHc b2 μm: 25.3 Quartz: 59.11
2–75 μm: 68.5 Albite: 13.92
75–2000 μm: 6.2 Illite: 15.56
Clinochlore: 11.41
3.2. Effects of different plastic amendment ratios on soil water evaporation
Changes in the EWC with time in soil 1 for different soil plastic
amendment ratios are presented in Fig. 2. The increase in plastic content
from 0.5% to 1% significantly increased the evaporation rate for soil 1,
whether it was treated with 2 mm, 5 mm, or 10 mm plastics (p b 0.01).
Fig. 3 shows the evaporation rate as a function of plastic content for
soil 1. The evaporation rate in soil 1 was faster when it was treated with
2 mm plastics than when it was treated with either 5 mm plastics or
10 mm plastics at the same plastic addition rate. Additionally, the evap-
oration rate increased proportionally with increasing plastic content in
soil 1 treated with 2 mm plastics. However, there was a smaller increase
in evaporation rate with an increase in plastic content for the 5 mm and
10 mm plastic treatments in soil 1.
3.3. Effects of plastics on soil desiccation cracking characteristics
Table 2 summarizes the results of soil cracking characteristics mea-
surements. During the evaporation process, the specimens treated
with both 10 mm and 5 mm plastics developed desiccation cracks on
the surface, while the specimens without plastics and those treated
with 2 mm plastics only showed boundary shrinkage. The number of
cracks was between 0 and 5, and the total length was between 0 and
61.2 cm. Pictures of typical samples are presented in Fig. 4. No map
cracks occurred in any of the samples, mainly because the soil liquid
limit was relatively low and the sample size was limited (Rayhani
et al., 2008; Tollenaar et al., 2017). Although the occurrence and
 Y. Wan et al. / Science of the Total Environment 654 (2019) 576–582
Fig. 2. Changes in the evaporation of water (EWC) with time in soil 1 for treatment with plastics with side lengths of 10 mm (A), 5 mm (B) and 2 mm (C) and different amendment ratios.
(Each point represents the mean values of three replicates).
development of cracks were random, it was found that the influence of
plastics on soil shrinkage cracks increased with the increase of plastic
size and concentration. NC and TCL were significantly higher in S1-
10 mm-1% than in S1-10 mm-0.5% and S1-5 mm-1% (p ≤ 0.05). NC
and TCL were also significantly higher in S2-10 mm-1% than in S2-
5 mm-1% (p = 0.05).
Fig. 3. Changes in the evaporation rate in soil 1 treated with different amendment ratios of
plastics. (Each point represents the mean values and the error bars represent the standard
deviation of three replicates).
579
3.4. Effects of plastics on soil desiccation shrinkage characteristics
Changes in the shrinkage ratio with time in the two soils are pre-
sented in Fig. 5. Soil 1 shrunk significantly faster than soil 2 during evap-
oration (p b 0.01). Changes in shrinkage ratio can be divided into three
stages: (1) in the initial stage, no shrinkage took place during evapora-
tion; (2) in the constant evaporation stage, the shrinkage ratio increased
linearly with time; and (3) in the residual stage, the shrinkage ratio
showed little change with time. In the constant evaporation stage, the
presence of plastics significantly increased the shrinkage in both soils,
and caused them to enter the residual stage in a shorter amount of
time. At the end of the experiment, however, the presence of plastics
slightly decreased the shrinkage ratio in both soils, indicating that plas-
tics hindered soil shrinkage at the residual stage.
4. Discussion
Soil water evaporation is a complex process affected by soil charac-
teristics, tillage, and environmental factors. Under the same external
conditions (temperature, humidity, and pressure), soil water evapora-
tion is mainly controlled by the water conductivity of soil, which is
linked to characteristics of its structure and composition (Khan and
Azam, 2017). Reducing soil water evaporation is of great concern in
agronomy, among other fields, as water is an important and scarce re-
source for plant growth. Our results showed that presence of plastics
in soil significantly accelerated the soil water evaporation process; this
effect was more pronounced for smaller plastics within the tested size
range. The soil conductivity was also related to the types and proportion
of clay minerals present, because clays have a much lower water
580 Y. Wan et al. / Science of the Total Environment 654 (2019) 576–582

Table 2
Number of cracks (NC) and total crack length (TCL) on the soil surface for different samples.

Treatment Sample NC TCL (cm) Average TCL (cm) Treatment Sample NC TCL (cm) Average TCL (cm)

S1 No.1 0 0 0 S2 No.1 0 0 0
No.2 0 0 No.2 0 0
No.3 0 0 No.3 0 0
S1-10 mm-0.5% No.1 2 25.8 23.4 – – – – –
No.2 2 27.9 – –
No.3 1 16.4 – – –
S1-10 mm-1% No.1 5 51.6 42.7 S2-10 mm-1% No.1 5 61.2 46.3
No.2 4 39.2 No.2 3 39.5
No.3 3 37.2 No.3 3 38.2
S1-5 mm-0.5% No.1 1 16.8 5.6 – – – – –
No.2 0 0 – – –
No.3 0 0 – – –
S1-5 mm-1% No.1 2 26.5 15.2 S2-5 mm-1% No.1 2 29.2 15.4
No.2 1 19.2 No.2 1 16.9
No.3 0 0 No.3 0 0
S1-2 mm-0.5% No.1 0 0 0 – – – – –
No.2 0 0 – – –
No.3 0 0 – – –
S1-2 mm-1% No.1 0 0 0 S2-2 mm-1% No.1 0 0 0
No.2 0 0 No.2 0 0
No.3 0 0 No.3 0 0

conductivity than larger soil particles such as silt and sand (Hamdi and at a much higher rate along the plastic surfaces than between soil pores.
Srasra, 2013). The size of plastics used in this work is much larger than Therefore, the presence of plastics created channels, which increased the
the clay particles in the soil. As a result, soil moisture can be transported water conductivity of the soil and thus increased soil water evaporation.

Fig. 4. Pictures of desiccation cracking on the surface of the soil samples (at T = 10 h and 20 h).
 Y. Wan et al. / Science of the Total Environment 654 (2019) 576–582
Fig. 5. Changes in the shrinkage ratio with time in soil 1 (A) and soil 2 (B), as affected by 2 mm plastics. (Each point represents the mean values of three replicates.)
In soils treated with 2 mm plastics, the size of the added plastics was
the same as the size of the largest soil particles. The interfaces between
the plastics and the soil particles act as direct channels for water move-
ment. More channels can be created when larger amounts of plastics are
present. Therefore, a linear relationship was observed between the soil
evaporation rate and the plastic content. It should be noted that, in this
experiment, plastics were added based on mass, such that the same
masses of 2 mm, 5 mm, and 10 mm plastics were added. This means
that the abundance (count) of 2 mm plastics was 4 and 25 times higher
in the treatments than 5 and 10 mm plastics, respectively, resulting in
more channels created for water movement. This might also contribute
to the effects of 2 mm plastics on soil water evaporation being more sig-
nificant than the effects of the other two sizes. Additionally, plastics
have a much lower water permeability than soil. Large plastics can
form covers in the soil. These covers reduce the effective infiltration
area, and thus reduce soil water evaporation. For this reason, the
10 mm plastics hindered soil water evaporation to a greater degree
than the other two sizes, which contributed to its effects on evaporation
to appear less significant than those of 5 and 2 mm plastics. This is prob-
ably the reason why increasing the plastic content of 10 mm plastics
didn't result in a linear increase in soil evaporation rate.
Desiccation cracking of the soil body is a complicated physical pro-
cess, which can affect the strength, stability, and permeability of soil
(Peron et al., 2009). During water evaporation, the matric suction in
the soil increases with decreasing water content, causing tensile stress
in the soil. When the tensile stress on the soil surface is greater than
the tensile strength of the soil, shrinkage cracks will develop on the
soil surface (Nahlawi and Kodikara, 2006). The shrinkage and cracking
characteristics of the soil are related to soil liquid limit. For soils with a
low liquid limit, the tensile stress in the soil tends to be less than the
tensile strength, so desiccation cracks cannot form (Rayhani et al.,
2008). The soil liquid limit used in this work was relatively low, and
the soils shrunk without cracking during the evaporation process in
the controls and in the 2 mm treatments. On the surface of the soils
treated with 2 mm plastics, no desiccation cracks were observed. This
is because the size of 2 mm plastics was the same as that of the largest
soil particles, and the plastics were evenly distributed in the soil. There-
fore, the integrity of the soil structure was maintained. However, as can
be observed in Fig. 4, in the soils amended with 5 mm and 10 mm plas-
tics, surface cracks developed and expanded from the vertical plastic
sheet, mainly because the large-sized plastics destroyed the integrity
of the soil surface structure and reduced the tensile strength of the
soil surface at their interface. At the same time, stress concentration at
the soil surface with the plastics caused the local tensile stress to in-
crease, thereby causing the tensile stress to be greater than the tensile
strength of the soil.
The soil shrinkage rate is mainly affected by moisture content
(Cornelis et al., 2006). As shown in Fig. 5, in the stable shrinkage
581
stage, the shrinkage rate of the soil treated with 2 mm plastic was
greater than that of soil without plastic at the same evaporation time.
This was mainly because microplastics increased the soil evaporation
rate, so that after the same amount of time, the water content of the
soil treated with 2 mm plastic was lower than that of the soil without
plastics. In the residual evaporation stage, the water content of the soil
treated with 2 mm plastic was the same as that of the soil without plas-
tics, and thus the water content was not the main factor affecting
shrinkage. Rather, the shrinkage capacity of plastic is less than that of
soil, so the presence of plastics slightly inhibited soil shrinkage during
the residual evaporation phase.
The effect of plastics on water evaporation and desiccation cracking
in soil observed in this study can have several environmental implica-
tions. Firstly, plastic contamination in soil may exacerbate soil water
shortages due to a significant increase in soil water evaporation. For
farmland soil, higher irrigation amounts and frequencies might be re-
quired to maintain crop growth, but additional field experiments should
be carried out to determine the combined effects of plastics and other
factors, such as vegetation, weather conditions, and irrigation regime.
The influence of plastic contamination on farmland is most notable for
microplastics, which are frequently detected at high levels in soil
(Chae and An, 2018). The smallest size tested in this experiment was
2 mm. For microplastics b2 mm, the effects might be similar, but further
assessment is needed to determine whether the effect of microplastics
on soil water evaporation is related to their size. Also note that only
plastic film was investigated in this work, so the effects of plastics of
other shapes should be investigated in future.
Secondly, large plastics facilitate the development of desiccation
cracking in soil. Formation of cracks in soil allows the evaporation of
soil water from deep soil, which may further cause soil water shortages.
When water resaturates the soil after cracking occurs, plastics and other
pollutants can migrate into deep soil layers along the cracks (Rillig et al.,
2017). Previously, it was demonstrated that desiccation cracks in agri-
cultural land are one of the most important routes for translocation of
veterinary antibiotics from pig slurry application (Kay et al., 2004). Fur-
thermore, desiccation cracking affects the permeability of clayey soil
barriers, such as tailings ponds for mining waste, and landfill liners
(Peron et al., 2013). Therefore, plastic contamination in clayey soils
can be detrimental for their application in seepage prevention.
5. Conclusions
Soil water evaporation and desiccation cracking behavior was signif-
icantly altered when plastics were present. Plastic addition significantly
increased the rate of soil water evaporation in two tested soils. The ef-
fect increased as the size of the tested plastics decreased, and as the
plastic content increased. Large plastics led to desiccation crack forma-
tion on the soil surface. The presence of plastics increased the rate of
582 Y. Wan et al. / Science of the Total Environment 654 (2019) 576–582
desiccation shrinkage during the constant evaporation stage, but hin-
dered soil shrinkage during the residual stage. The results of this work
imply that plastic contamination in soil may increase water loss from
the soil and that large plastics might facilitate the leaching of pollutants
into deep soil layers. The effect of plastics of other shapes on soil water
evaporation should be further investigated. Field studies are also re-
quired to confirm laboratory-scale results.
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by the State Key Laboratory of Freshwa-
ter Ecology and Biotechnology (2016FBZ11) and the Special Fund for
Basic Research on Scientific Instruments of the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (51625903, 51509245).
References
ASTM, 2017. Standard Practice for Classification of Soils for Engineering Purposes
(Unified Soil Classification System). ASTM D2487-17. ASTM International, West
Conshohocken, PA.
Chae, Y., An, Y.J., 2018. Current research trends on plastic pollution and ecological impacts
on the soil ecosystem: a review. Environ. Pollut. 240, 387–395.
Cordero, J.A., Useche, G., Prat, P.C., Ledesma, A., Santamarina, J.C., 2017. Soil desiccation
cracks as a suction-contraction process. Geotech. Lett. 7, 279–285.
Cornelis, W.M., Corluy, J., Medina, H., Díaz, J., Hartmann, R., Van Meirvenne, M., Ruiz, M.E.,
2006. Measuring and modelling the soil shrinkage characteristic curve. Geoderma
137, 179–191.
de Souza Machado, A.A., Kloas, W., Zarfl, C., Hempel, S., Rillig, M.C., 2018. Microplastics as
an emerging threat to terrestrial ecosystems. Glob. Chang. Biol. 24, 1405–1416.
Fuller, S., Gautam, A., 2016. A procedure for measuring microplastics using pressurized
fluid extraction. Environ. Sci. Technol. 50, 5774–5780.
Galloway, T.S., Lewis, C.N., 2016. Marine microplastics spell big problems for future gen-
erations. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 113, 2331–2333.
Gaylor, M.O., Harvey, E., Hale, R.C., 2013. Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) accumu-
lation by earthworms (Eisenia fetida) exposed to biosolids-, polyurethane foam
microparticle-, and penta-BDE-amended soils. Environ. Sci. Technol. 47,
13831–13839.
GB/T 50123-1999, 1999. Standard for Soil Test Method. Ministry of Construction of the
People's Republic of China.
Greve, A., Andersen, M.S., Acworth, R.I., 2010. Investigations of soil cracking and preferen-
tial flow in a weighing lysimeter filled with cracking clay soil. J. Hydrol. 393, 105–113.
Hamdi, N., Srasra, E., 2013. Hydraulic conductivity study of compacted clay soils used as
landfill liners for an acidic waste. Waste Manag. 33, 60–66.
Hodson, M.E., Duffus-Hodson, C.A., Clark, A., Prendergast-Miller, M.T., Thorpe, K.L., 2017.
Plastic bag derived-microplastics as a vector for metal exposure in terrestrial inverte-
brates. Environ. Sci. Technol. 51, 4714–4721.
Hurley, R.R., Nizzetto, L., 2018. Fate and occurrence of micro(nano)plastics in soils:
knowledge gaps and possible risks. Curr. Opin. Environ. Sci. Health 1, 6–11.
Jambeck, J.R., Geyer, R., Wilcox, C., Siegler, T.R., Perryman, M., Andrady, A., Narayan, R.,
Law, K.L., 2015. Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Science 347, 768–771.
Kay, P., Blackwell, P.A., Boxall, A.B.A., 2004. Fate of veterinary antibiotics in a macroporous
tile drained clay soil. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 23, 1136–1144.
Khan, F.S., Azam, S., 2017. Determination of the desiccation behavior of clay slurries. Int.
J. Min. Sci. Technol. 27, 981–988.
Kodikara, J., Barbour, S.L., Fredlund, D.G., 1998. An idealized framework for the analysis of
cohesive soils undergoing desiccation: discussion. Can. Geotech. J. 35, 1112–1114.
Krisnanto, S., Rahardjo, H., Fredlund, D.G., Leong, E.C., 2016. Water content of soil matrix
during lateral water flow through cracked soil. Eng. Geol. 210, 168–179.
Lakshmikantha, M.R., Prat, P.C., Ledesma, A., 2009. Image analysis for the quantification of
a developing crack network on a drying soil. Geotech. Test. J. 32, 505–515.
Liu, H., Yang, X., Liu, G., Liang, C., Xue, S., Chen, H., Ritsema, C.J., Geissen, V., 2017. Response
of soil dissolved organic matter to microplastic addition in Chinese loess soil.
Chemosphere 185, 907–917.
Lwanga, E.H., Gertsen, H., Gooren, H., Peters, P., Salanki, T., van der Ploeg, M., Besseling, E.,
Koelmans, A.A., Geissen, V., 2016. Microplastics in the terrestrial ecosystem: implica-
tions for Lumbricus terrestris (Oligochaeta, Lumbricidae). Environ. Sci. Technol. 50,
2685–2691.
Machado, A.A.D., Lau, C.W., Till, J., Kloas, W., Lehmann, A., Becker, R., et al., 2018. Impacts
of microplastics on the soil biophysical environment. Environ. Sci. Technol. 52,
9656–9665.
Nahlawi, H., Kodikara, J.K., 2006. Laboratory experiments on desiccation cracking of thin
soil layers. Geotech. Geol. Eng. 24, 1641–1664.
Ng, E.L., Huerta Lwanga, E., Eldridge, S.M., Johnston, P., Hu, H.W., Geissen, V., Chen, D.L.,
2018. An overview of microplastic and nanoplastic pollution in agroecosystems. Sci.
Total Environ. 627, 1377–1388.
Peng, J., Wang, J., Cai, L., 2017. Current understanding of microplastics in the environ-
ment: occurrence, fate, risks, and what we should do. Integr. Environ. Assess.
Manag. 13, 476–482.
Peron, H., Hueckel, T., Laloui, L., Hu, L.B., 2009. Fundamentals of desiccation cracking of
fine-grained soils: experimental characterisation and mechanisms identification.
Can. Geotech. J. 46, 1177–1201.
Peron, H., Laloui, L., Hu, L.B., Hueckel, T., 2013. Formation of drying crack patterns in soils:
a deterministic approach. Acta Geotech. 8, 215–221.
PlasticsEurope, 2018. Plastics - The Facts 2017: An Analysis of European Plastics Produc-
tion, Demand and Waste Data.
Rayhani, M.H.T., Yanful, E.K., Fakher, A., 2008. Physical modeling of desiccation cracking in
plastic soils. Eng. Geol. 97, 25–31.
Rillig, M.C., 2012. Microplastic in terrestrial ecosystems and the soil? Environ. Sci. Technol.
46, 6453–6454.
Rillig, M.C., Ingraffia, R., de Souza Machado, A.A., 2017. Microplastic incorporation into soil
in agroecosystems. Front. Plant Sci. 8.
Rochman, C.M., Browne, M.A., Halpern, B.S., Hentschel, B.T., Hoh, E., Karapanagioti, H.K.,
Rios-Mendoza, L.M., Takada, H., The, S., Thompson, R.C., 2013. Classify plastic waste
as hazardous. Nature 494, 169–171.
Rodriguez-Seijo, A., Lourenço, J., Rocha-Santos, T.A.P., da Costa, J., Duarte, A.C., Vala, H.,
Perreira, R., 2017. Histopathological and molecular effects of microplastics in Eisenia
andrei Bouché. Environ. Pollut. 220, 495–503.
Tang, C., Shi, B., Liu, C., Zhao, L., Wang, B., 2008. Influencing factors of geometrical struc-
ture of surface shrinkage cracks in clayey soils. Eng. Geol. 101, 204–217.
Tang, C.S., Cui, Y.J., Shi, B., Tang, A.M., Liu, C., 2011a. Desiccation and cracking behaviour of
clay layer from slurry state under wetting–drying cycles. Geoderma 166, 111–118.
Tang, C.S., Shi, B., Liu, C., Suo, W.B., Gao, L., 2011b. Experimental characterization of shrink-
age and desiccation cracking in thin clay layer. Appl. Clay Sci. 52, 69–77.
Thompson, R.C., Swan, S.H., Moore, C.J., vom Saal, F.S., 2009. Our plastic age. Philos. Trans.
R. Soc. Lond. Ser. B Biol. Sci. 364, 1973–1976.
Tollenaar, R.N., van Paassen, L.A., Jommi, C., 2017. Observations on the desiccation and
cracking of clay layers. Eng. Geol. 230, 23–31.
Wells, T., Hancock, G., 2014. Comparison of vertical transport of 137Cs and organic carbon
in agricultural cracking soils. Geoderma 214–215, 228–238.
Zhang, G.S., Liu, Y.F., 2018. The distribution of microplastics in soil aggregate fractions in
southwestern China. Sci. Total Environ. 642, 12–20.
Zhang, Z.B., Peng, X., Zhou, H., Lin, H., Sun, H., 2015. Characterizing preferential flow in
cracked paddy soils using computed tomography and breakthrough curve. Soil Till-
age Res. 146, 53–65.
Zhou, Q., Zhang, H., Fu, C., Zhou, Y., Dai, Z., Li, Y., Tu, C., Luo, Y.M., 2018. The distribution
and morphology of microplastics in coastal soils adjacent to the Bohai Sea and the
Yellow Sea. Geoderma 322, 201–208.
Zhu, D., Chen, Q.L., An, X.L., Yang, X.R., Christie, P., Ke, X., Wu, L.H., Zhu, Y.G., 2018. Expo-
sure of soil collembolans to microplastics perturbs their gut microbiota and alters
their isotopic composition. Soil Biol. Biochem. 116, 302–310.
Zubris, K.A.V., Richards, B.K., 2005. Synthetic fibers as an indicator of land application of
sludge. Environ. Pollut. 138, 201–211.