State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
College of Resources and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China.
Nat Commun. 2023 Mar 27;14(1):1706. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-37428-6.
Soil contamination is one of the main threats to ecosystem health and sustainability. Yet little is known about the extent to which soil contaminants differ between urban greenspaces and natural ecosystems. Here we show that urban greenspaces and adjacent natural areas (i.e., natural/semi-natural ecosystems) shared similar levels of multiple soil contaminants (metal(loid)s, pesticides, microplastics, and antibiotic resistance genes) across the globe. We reveal that human influence explained many forms of soil contamination worldwide. Socio-economic factors were integral to explaining the occurrence of soil contaminants worldwide. We further show that increased levels of multiple soil contaminants were linked with changes in microbial traits including genes associated with environmental stress resistance, nutrient cycling, and pathogenesis. Taken together, our work demonstrates that human-driven soil contamination in nearby natural areas mirrors that in urban greenspaces globally, and highlights that soil contaminants have the potential to cause dire consequences for ecosystem sustainability and human wellbeing.
土壤污染是威胁生态系统健康和可持续性的主要因素之一。然而，人们对于城市绿地和自然生态系统之间土壤污染物的差异程度知之甚少。在这里，我们表明，城市绿地和相邻的自然区域（即自然/半自然生态系统）在全球范围内具有相似水平的多种土壤污染物（金属（类）、农药、微塑料和抗生素抗性基因）。我们揭示了人类的影响可以解释全球范围内的许多土壤污染形式。社会经济因素是解释全球土壤污染物发生的重要因素。我们进一步表明，多种土壤污染物水平的升高与微生物特征的变化有关，包括与环境应激抗性、养分循环和发病机制相关的基因。总之，我们的工作表明，附近自然区域中由人类驱动的土壤污染与全球城市绿地中的土壤污染相似，并强调土壤污染物有可能对生态系统可持续性和人类福祉造成严重后果。
