Hao Yaqiong, Min Ju, Sun Haijun, Chen Gui, Lu Yufang, Kronzucker Herbert J, Shi Weiming
State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China.
J Environ Manage. 2025 Aug;389:126278. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.126278. Epub 2025 Jun 20.
Development of rural tourism, such as in the Erhai Lake region of China's Yunnan Province, can lead to significant increases in farmers' incomes. However, the large amounts of plastic waste generated by tourism activities may increase microplastics (MPs) concentrations in surrounding farmland soils and pose a risk to human health. Here, we investigated the abundance and characteristics of MPs in farmland soils and vegetables in the Erhai Lake region. The results show that there are significantly higher MP concentrations in developed areas compared to areas that have not been developed for tourism. Specifically, the MP abundances in developed vs. traditional village soils were 6486 ± 3665 vs 1525 ± 656 MP/kg. We further found that developed farmlands had approximately twice the MP abundance of traditional farmlands. There was a significant increase in fragmented (+225.6 %) and granular (+40.0 MP/kg) MPs in the developed farmland soils, and these MPs were mainly in the forms of polyethylene and polypropylene. Vegetables grown on soils of developed areas also had higher MP pollutants. Leafy vegetables contained 7.7 ± 3.8 MPs/5g when grown on soils in developed areas, compared to 2.8 ± 0.9 MPs/5g in non-developed areas. Adult residents in developed areas were found to have accumulated approximately 1.41 × 10 more MPs annually via vegetable consumption compared to adults who live in non-developed areas. In conclusion, the development of tourism in the Erhai Lake region has significantly increased the microplastics content in surrounding farmland soils and vegetables, posing a potential threat to agricultural production and to ecosystems, and to human health via bioaccumulation.
乡村旅游的发展，比如在中国云南省洱海地区，能够显著提高农民收入。然而，旅游活动产生的大量塑料垃圾可能会增加周边农田土壤中的微塑料（MPs）浓度，并对人类健康构成风险。在此，我们调查了洱海地区农田土壤和蔬菜中微塑料的丰度及特征。结果表明，与未开发旅游的地区相比，开发地区的微塑料浓度显著更高。具体而言，开发地区与传统村庄土壤中的微塑料丰度分别为6486 ± 3665个/千克和1525 ± 656个/千克。我们进一步发现，开发农田的微塑料丰度约为传统农田的两倍。开发农田土壤中破碎的微塑料（增加225.6%）和颗粒状微塑料（增加40.0个/千克）显著增加，这些微塑料主要为聚乙烯和聚丙烯形式。在开发地区土壤上种植的蔬菜也含有更高的微塑料污染物。在开发地区土壤上种植的叶菜类蔬菜，每5克含有7.7 ± 3.8个微塑料，而在未开发地区为2.8 ± 0.9个/5克。研究发现，与生活在未开发地区的成年人相比，开发地区的成年居民每年通过蔬菜消费积累的微塑料大约多1.41×10个。总之，洱海地区的旅游开发显著增加了周边农田土壤和蔬菜中的微塑料含量，对农业生产、生态系统以及通过生物累积对人类健康构成了潜在威胁。
