Climate and soil properties drive microplastic enrichment patterns in agricultural soils across a multi-country survey.

Soil physical properties and climate are the primary regulators of microplastic enrichment in agricultural soils across multiple countries, with climate factors explaining significant variation.

• Why it matters: Understanding environmental drivers of microplastic accumulation is crucial for assessing contamination patterns and developing effective policies, yet current knowledge is limited and regional comparisons are challenging.
• What they did: A multi-country survey analyzed microplastic abundances in soils from farming systems using plastic mulch film across a global climatic gradient, employing robust Z-transformed enrichment values and linear mixed-effects models.
• The result: Higher precipitation correlates with lower microplastic enrichment, while higher temperatures are linked to increased enrichment, highlighting climate's role in microplastic dynamics and emphasizing the need for standardized analytical methods.