Latest news with #earthworms
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Science
- The Guardian
The life of microplastic: how fragments move through plants, insects, animals
The story starts with a single thread of polyester, dislodged from the weave of a cheap, pink acrylic jumper as it spins around a washing machine. This load of washing will shed hundreds of thousands of tiny plastic fragments and threads – up to 700,000 in this one washing machine cycle. Along with billions of other microscopic, synthetic fibres, our thread travels through household wastewater pipes. Often, it ends up as sewage sludge, being spread on a farmer's field to help crops grow. Sludge is used as organic fertiliser across the US and Europe, inadvertently turning the soil into a huge global reservoir of microplastics. One wastewater treatment plant in Wales found 1% of the weight of sewage sludge was plastic. From here, it works its way up the food chain through insects, birds, mammals and even humans. Perhaps our jumper's life as a garment will end soon, lasting only a few outings before it emerges from the wash shrunken and bobbling, to be discarded. But our thread's life will be long. It might have only been part of a jumper for a few weeks, but it could voyage around the natural world for centuries. Spread on the fields as water or sludge, our tiny fibre weaves its way into the fabric of soil ecosystems. A worm living under a wheat field burrows its way through the soil, mistaking the thread for a bit of old leaf or root. The worm consumes it – but cannot process it like ordinary organic matter. The worm joins nearly one in three earthworms that contain plastic, according to a study published in April, as well as a quarter of slugs and snails that ingest plastic as they graze across soil. Caterpillars of peacock, powder blue and red admiral butterflies all contain plastic too, perhaps from feeding on leaves contaminated with it, research shows. With the plastic in its gut, the burrowing earthworm will find it more difficult to digest nutrients, and is likely to start shedding weight. The damage might not be visible but for insects, eating plastic has been linked to stunted growth, reduced fertility and problems with the liver, kidney and stomach. Even some of the tiniest lifeforms in our soil, such as mites and nematodes – which help maintain the fertility of land – are negatively affected by plastic. Plastic pollution in the marine environment has been widely documented, but a UN report found soil contains more microplastic pollution than the oceans. This matters not only for the health of soils, but because creepy crawlies such as beetles, slugs and snails form the building blocks of food chains. Our worm is now enabling this plastic fibre to become an international traveller. In a suburban garden, a hedgehog snuffles through a dozen invertebrates in a night, consuming plastic fibres within them as it goes. One of them is our worm. A study that looked at the faeces of seven hedgehogs, found four of them contained plastics, one of which contained 12 fibres of polyester, some of which were pink. If hedgehogs don't live in your country, substitute another small, scurrying mammal or bird: the same study found mice, voles and rats were also eating plastic, either directly or via contaminated prey. Birds that eat insects such as swifts, thrushes and blackbirds are also ingesting plastic via their prey. A study earlier this year found for the first time that birds have microplastics in their lungs because they are inhaling them too. 'Microplastics are now ubiquitous at every level of the food web,' says Prof Fiona Mathews, environmental biologist at the University of Sussex. The meat, milk and blood of farm animals also contain microplastics. At the top of the food chain, humans consume at least 50,000 microplastic particles a year. They are in our food, water, and the air we breathe. Fragments of plastic have been found in blood, semen, lungs, breast milk, bone marrow, placenta, testicles and the brain. Even as it makes its way up the animal food chain, our polyester fibre has not been broken down. At some point, the thread returns to the dirt when the creature that consumed its host dies, and a new adventure starts. The body will decay, but the polyester fibre will endure. Once in the soil, it is ploughed in by the farmer before crops are sown. But it may not stay there for long – strong winds blow the dry, degraded soil into the air, taking with it a pink fragment of plastic. In heavy rain, the fibre could be swept into a river flowing to the sea: a major source of marine contamination is run-off from land. This process of moving through natural systems over years has been called 'plastic spiralling'. Scientists have found that microplastics equivalent to 300m plastic water bottles have rained down on the Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree and other US national parks. Even the most remote places are contaminated. One scientist found 12,000 microplastic particles a litre in samples of Arctic sea ice, swept there by ocean currents and blown in by the wind. With the passage of time, our plastic thread has still not rotted, but has broken into fragments, leaving tiny pieces of itself in the air, water and soil. Over the course of years, it could become so small that it infiltrates the root cell wall of a plant as it sucks up nutrients from the soil. Nanoplastics have been found in the leaves and fruits of plants and, once inside, they can affect the plant's ability to photosynthesise, research suggests. Here, inside the microscopic systems of the plant, the bits of our pink fibre cause all kinds of havoc – blocking nutrient and water channels, harming cells and releasing toxic chemicals. Staples such as wheat, rice and lettuce have been shown to contain plastic, which is one way they enter the human food chain. From its humble beginnings, our fibre may have journeyed around the world, shedding bits of itself along the way, and working its way into almost every layer of different ecosystems and the far reaches of the natural world. Extracting it once it begins that journey is extremely difficult. The best way to prevent its spread is to stop it at the outset – before the worm, before the soil, before the washing machine, even before the jumper is made. Since the 1950s, humans have produced in excess of 8.3bn tonnes of plastic – equivalent to the weight of one billion elephants. It finds its way into packaging, textiles, agricultural materials and consumer goods. Opting to live without it is almost impossible. Fast fashion companies, drinks giants, supermarket chains and big agricultural companies have failed to take responsibility for the damage this has caused, says Emily Thrift, who researches plastic in the environment at the University of Sussex. She says individual consumers can reduce their consumption but should not feel that this is entirely their responsibility. 'If you do make this level of waste, there needs to be some form of penalisation for doing it,' she says. 'I truly believe until there is policy and ways to hold big corporations accountable, I don't see it changing much.'
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Science
- The Guardian
The life of microplastic: how fragments move through plants, insects, animals
The story starts with a single thread of polyester, dislodged from the weave of a cheap, pink acrylic jumper as it spins around a washing machine. This load of washing will shed hundreds of thousands of tiny plastic fragments and threads – up to 700,000 in this one washing machine cycle. Along with billions of other microscopic, synthetic fibres, our thread travels through household wastewater pipes. Often, it ends up as sewage sludge, being spread on a farmer's field to help crops grow. Sludge is used as organic fertiliser across the US and Europe, inadvertently turning the soil into a huge global reservoir of microplastics. One wastewater treatment plant in Wales found 1% of the weight of sewage sludge was plastic. From here, it works its way up the food chain through insects, birds, mammals and even humans. Perhaps our jumper's life as a garment will end soon, lasting only a few outings before it emerges from the wash shrunken and bobbling, to be discarded. But our thread's life will be long. It might have only been part of a jumper for a few weeks, but it could voyage around the natural world for centuries. Spread on the fields as water or sludge, our tiny fibre weaves its way into the fabric of soil ecosystems. A worm living under a wheat field burrows its way through the soil, mistaking the thread for a bit of old leaf or root. The worm consumes it – but cannot process it like ordinary organic matter. The worm joins nearly one in three earthworms that contain plastic, according to a study published in April, as well as a quarter of slugs and snails that ingest plastic as they graze across soil. Caterpillars of peacock, powder blue and red admiral butterflies all contain plastic too, perhaps from feeding on leaves contaminated with it, research shows. With the plastic in its gut, the burrowing earthworm will find it more difficult to digest nutrients, and is likely to start shedding weight. The damage might not be visible but for insects, eating plastic has been linked to stunted growth, reduced fertility and problems with the liver, kidney and stomach. Even some of the tiniest lifeforms in our soil, such as mites and nematodes – which help maintain the fertility of land – are negatively affected by plastic. Plastic pollution in the marine environment has been widely documented, but a UN report found soil contains more microplastic pollution than the oceans. This matters not only for the health of soils, but because creepy crawlies such as beetles, slugs and snails form the building blocks of food chains. Our worm is now enabling this plastic fibre to become an international traveller. In a suburban garden, a hedgehog snuffles through a dozen invertebrates in a night, consuming plastic fibres within them as it goes. One of them is our worm. A study that looked at the faeces of seven hedgehogs, found four of them contained plastics, one of which contained 12 fibres of polyester, some of which were pink. If hedgehogs don't live in your country, substitute another small, scurrying mammal or bird: the same study found mice, voles and rats were also eating plastic, either directly or via contaminated prey. Birds that eat insects such as swifts, thrushes and blackbirds are also ingesting plastic via their prey. A study earlier this year found for the first time that birds have microplastics in their lungs because they are inhaling them too. 'Microplastics are now ubiquitous at every level of the food web,' says Prof Fiona Mathews, environmental biologist at the University of Sussex. The meat, milk and blood of farm animals also contain microplastics. At the top of the food chain, humans consume at least 50,000 microplastic particles a year. They are in our food, water, and the air we breathe. Fragments of plastic have been found in blood, semen, lungs, breast milk, bone marrow, placenta, testicles and the brain. Even as it makes its way up the animal food chain, our polyester fibre has not been broken down. At some point, the thread returns to the dirt when the creature that consumed its host dies, and a new adventure starts. The body will decay, but the polyester fibre will endure. Once in the soil, it is ploughed in by the farmer before crops are sown. But it may not stay there for long – strong winds blow the dry, degraded soil into the air, taking with it a pink fragment of plastic. In heavy rain, the fibre could be swept into a river flowing to the sea: a major source of marine contamination is run-off from land. This process of moving through natural systems over years has been called 'plastic spiralling'. Scientists have found that microplastics equivalent to 300m plastic water bottles have rained down on the Grand Canyon, Joshua Tree and other US national parks. Even the most remote places are contaminated. One scientist found 12,000 microplastic particles a litre in samples of Arctic sea ice, swept there by ocean currents and blown in by the wind. With the passage of time, our plastic thread has still not rotted, but has broken into fragments, leaving tiny pieces of itself in the air, water and soil. Over the course of years, it could become so small that it infiltrates the root cell wall of a plant as it sucks up nutrients from the soil. Nanoplastics have been found in the leaves and fruits of plants and, once inside, they can affect the plant's ability to photosynthesise, research suggests. Here, inside the microscopic systems of the plant, the bits of our pink fibre cause all kinds of havoc – blocking nutrient and water channels, harming cells and releasing toxic chemicals. Staples such as wheat, rice and lettuce have been shown to contain plastic, which is one way they enter the human food chain. From its humble beginnings, our fibre may have journeyed around the world, shedding bits of itself along the way, and working its way into almost every layer of different ecosystems and the far reaches of the natural world. Extracting it once it begins that journey is extremely difficult. The best way to prevent its spread is to stop it at the outset – before the worm, before the soil, before the washing machine, even before the jumper is made. Since the 1950s, humans have produced in excess of 8.3bn tonnes of plastic – equivalent to the weight of one billion elephants. It finds its way into packaging, textiles, agricultural materials and consumer goods. Opting to live without it is almost impossible. Fast fashion companies, drinks giants, supermarket chains and big agricultural companies have failed to take responsibility for the damage this has caused, says Emily Thrift, who researches plastic in the environment at the University of Sussex. She says individual consumers can reduce their consumption but should not feel that this is entirely their responsibility. 'If you do make this level of waste, there needs to be some form of penalisation for doing it,' she says. 'I truly believe until there is policy and ways to hold big corporations accountable, I don't see it changing much.'
The Independent
08-07-2025
- General
- The Independent
Why landscape fabric is often a bad idea for your garden
Landscape fabric may sound like a neat, tidy and easy solution to all your weeding woes, but, as often is the case, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. To be fair, landscape fabric has its place. Unfortunately, it's widely misused in most home landscape applications, where it does more harm than good in ornamental beds and around perennials and crops. The woven (or sometimes non-woven) synthetic (or sometimes biodegradable) barrier is meant to suppress weeds while allowing water and air to pass through to the soil beneath it. And that's exactly how it works -– for a short time, after which buyer's remorse almost always sets in. Before long, soil and other organic matter settle on top of the fabric, seeds find their way to the surface, and weeds begin to grow. Since their roots penetrate through the fabric, removing them becomes extremely difficult. Under the barrier, which restricts water and oxygen from reaching the soil and carbon from escaping, microbes, earthworms and other insects die, fertility declines and roots struggle. In perennial beds, the fabric creates heat pockets and impedes the spread and self-seeding of plants. In time, the fabric will shift and tear, and attempts to remove it will no doubt make you rue the day you had the bright idea to use it. Plastic sheeting is even worse, as it completely blocks water and air from reaching the soil, overheats roots and releases microplastics into the ground. There are exceptions, however. Landscape fabric can be helpful under gravel or stone paths or walkways, where it creates a barrier between the hardscape and the soil below. It can also help smother grass and weeds when used temporarily to help create a clean slate for future planting beds in areas that are difficult to clear. Still, I recommend using thick layers of newspaper or cardboard instead, as they biodegrade naturally and perform the same function without having to be removed. When your landscape fabric becomes a torn, weedy, root-tangled mess – and it will -- good luck removing it. The painstaking process involves slowly and carefully pulling up individual fragments of the fabric, which will be heavy under the soil, and cutting them away from around and between roots, which will have grown above, below and through the textile. Instead of shooting yourself in the foot with landscape fabric, opt for an organic mulch like shredded bark, wood chips or straw. It will regulate soil temperature and moisture, nourish the soil as it decomposes and support the soil life that supports your plants. Apply a 2- to 4-inch layer, keeping it away from trunks and stems, and refresh it when it breaks down. You'll still get a few weeds, but they'll pull up easily, roots and all. ___ Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice. ___ For more AP gardening stories, go to
Associated Press
08-07-2025
- General
- Associated Press
Why landscape fabric is often a bad idea for your garden
Landscape fabric may sound like a neat, tidy and easy solution to all your weeding woes, but, as often is the case, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. To be fair, landscape fabric has its place. Unfortunately, it's widely misused in most home landscape applications, where it does more harm than good in ornamental beds and around perennials and crops. The woven (or sometimes non-woven) synthetic (or sometimes biodegradable) barrier is meant to suppress weeds while allowing water and air to pass through to the soil beneath it. And that's exactly how it works -– for a short time, after which buyer's remorse almost always sets in. Before long, soil and other organic matter settle on top of the fabric, seeds find their way to the surface, and weeds begin to grow. Since their roots penetrate through the fabric, removing them becomes extremely difficult. Under the barrier, which restricts water and oxygen from reaching the soil and carbon from escaping, microbes, earthworms and other insects die, fertility declines and roots struggle. In perennial beds, the fabric creates heat pockets and impedes the spread and self-seeding of plants. In time, the fabric will shift and tear, and attempts to remove it will no doubt make you rue the day you had the bright idea to use it. Plastic sheeting is even worse, as it completely blocks water and air from reaching the soil, overheats roots and releases microplastics into the ground. There are exceptions, however. Landscape fabric can be helpful under gravel or stone paths or walkways, where it creates a barrier between the hardscape and the soil below. It can also help smother grass and weeds when used temporarily to help create a clean slate for future planting beds in areas that are difficult to clear. Still, I recommend using thick layers of newspaper or cardboard instead, as they biodegrade naturally and perform the same function without having to be removed. When your landscape fabric becomes a torn, weedy, root-tangled mess – and it will -- good luck removing it. The painstaking process involves slowly and carefully pulling up individual fragments of the fabric, which will be heavy under the soil, and cutting them away from around and between roots, which will have grown above, below and through the textile. Instead of shooting yourself in the foot with landscape fabric, opt for an organic mulch like shredded bark, wood chips or straw. It will regulate soil temperature and moisture, nourish the soil as it decomposes and support the soil life that supports your plants. Apply a 2- to 4-inch layer, keeping it away from trunks and stems, and refresh it when it breaks down. You'll still get a few weeds, but they'll pull up easily, roots and all. ___ Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice. ___ For more AP gardening stories, go to
The Guardian
04-07-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
Pot-plant trade is ‘hitchhiker pathway' for invasive flatworms, say UK experts
They have been invading the UK for years; small mucus-covered animals which hunt in gardens, allotments and greenhouses. The number of sightings of non-native flatworms has risen sharply over the past few years, and experts have warned they can decimate earthworm populations and degrade soil quality. Land flatworms are non-segmented worms, which feed on a range of soil organisms from woodlice to worms. In the UK the number of non-native species has risen from two in the 1950s to 14 in 2020. Only a few of these can really be categorised as 'invasive', according to the planarian specialist Hugh Jones, because of the 'measurable damage' they inflict on ecosystems. 'There are three in the UK which I'd loosely call invasive, two of them definitely: the New Zealand flatworm, the Australian, and the Obama all eat earthworms,' he said. Once established you cannot eradicate them, only mitigate the worst of the harm. Earthworms are ecosystem engineers. They enrich soil by passing it through their digestive systems, moving organic matter into deeper layers, and their burrows help stop compaction. According to the ecology professor Rene van der Wal, from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, invasive flatworms drive down the numbers of earthworms 'to extremely low levels'. The knock-on ecosystem effects include a reduction in mole populations as their earthworm diet disappears. There is no definitive research on the extent to which this is affecting agriculture. Populations of the New Zealand flatworm are growing in Scotland and northern England, while the Australian flatworm is spreading out from its strongholds in Lancashire, south Wales and south-west England. The sharp increase in non-native species in recent decades is attributed to global trade, particularly in potted plants and soils, David Smith, advocacy and social change manager from the charity Buglife, told the Guardian. Over recent years, this regulatory framework has been shifting. Post-Brexit, Britain can import potted plants from Europe, but only export bare-root. That could change with the new UK-EU trade deal, which will revise 'phytosanitary' plant health regulations, including in ornamental plants. The deal has been agreed in principle, but details are still being negotiated. The National Farmers Union has welcomed it, suggesting that with Britain poised to re-enter the European plant health area, we could soon see an end to border control checks and phytosanitary certification for most plant products traded with the EU. Others, however, are concerned this could accelerate the spread of invasive species, including flatworms. Of particular concern is the New Guinea flatworm, the only flatworm that features in the International Union for Conservation of Nature's 100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species list. It has extirpated entire snail populations on some islands, and poses a threat to snails across Europe. So far, sightings have been reported in France but not yet in Britain. It is, says Smith, 'a ferocious predator'. 'It's been found in greenhouses in Europe but not yet in the wild. It wouldn't take much climate change for it to move out and succeed, or to be transported to a place that's more suitable to it – some micro-climates within the UK, for instance.' Unlike flying insects, flatworms 'rely entirely on human activity for dispersal, typically arriving hidden in soil or potted plants', Smith said. 'Current biosecurity measures are insufficient to detect and intercept them, enabling their escape into gardens and the wider countryside.' Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion The soil was not policed, van der Wal said. Plants are checked at borders 'but they're being checked for what's on their surface, and on the soil's surface. Sometimes they may look into the soil itself, but essentially they're looking at the health of the plant, and not at hitchhiker species.' Instead of deregulating the pot plant trade, which risks opening the door even wider to more harm, the trade deal could go the other way, and help close major entry points by banning all imports of soil and products containing soil. The horticulture industry opposes this. 'They say it's easier to move plants in soil, and to sustain them whilst they're being transported and in warehouses,' Smith said. But this was how non-EU imports were already managed, and to extend the practice to the EU would be straightforward, he said. While the invasive flatworms already in Britain are here to stay, the UK-EU trade deal offered a rare opportunity to close off a 'hitchhiker pathway' for the arrival of more invasive species, Smith said. If this is not done, he warned the risk would grow of British-based invasive flatworms being unwittingly exported to other parts of Europe, and of other species moving to Britain. Buglife encourages anyone who finds a flatworm to submit a sighting via its PotWatch survey.
