Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Mar 11;13(3):201.
doi: 10.3390/toxics13030201.

Effects of Microplastics on Selected Earthworm Species

Marek Klimasz  1 , Anna Grobelak  1
Affiliations

Effects of Microplastics on Selected Earthworm Species

Marek Klimasz et al. Toxics. .

Abstract

Microplastics currently pose a serious threat to aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. The high mobility of particles and their diversity in size, material and shape lets them spread widely. Further complicating matters is the ever-expanding plastics industry and modifications to its manufacturing processes. To date, many cases of negative, often toxic effects of microplastics on various species such as fish, birds and mammals have been documented. The methodology for measuring and determining the effects of microplastics on soil organisms is still an area of little understanding and certainly requires further study. In our conducted experiment, we reported the effects of selected microplastics in soil (polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polystyrene, polyamide and a mixture of these plastics) at concentrations of 0.1% w/v and 1% w/v at two time intervals, one and three months, on five different earthworm species, identifying the species-related microplastic response. This study investigated the effects of different microplastics on biological parameters such as survival and respiration and biochemical parameters such as effects on glutathione s-transferase (GST), a marker of detoxification and adaptive response in earthworm species Eisenia andrei, Eisenia fetida, Lumbricus terrestris, Apporectoda caliginosa and Dendrobena veneta. The choices of species and the types of microplastic selected are intended to map the occurrence of microplastic contamination in the soil and determine the adaptation of earthworms to changing environmental conditions, considering their ecological significance and functional diversity in soil ecosystems.

Keywords: adaptive response; earthworms; high-density polyethylene; microplastic.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Effect of microplastics on GST activity after 1 month of exposure in tested earthworms; statistically significant differences marked with “*”.
Figure 1
Figure 1
Effect of microplastics on GST activity after 1 month of exposure in tested earthworms; statistically significant differences marked with “*”.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Effects of microplastics on GST activity after 3 months of exposure in tested earthworms; statistically significant differences marked with “*”.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Effects of microplastics on GST activity after 3 months of exposure in tested earthworms; statistically significant differences marked with “*”.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Effects of microplastics on respiration after 1 month of exposure in tested earthworms; mg CO2 emitted per g of live worms and per hour.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Effects of microplastics on respiration after 1 month of exposure in tested earthworms; mg CO2 emitted per g of live worms and per hour.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Effects of microplastics on respiration in tested earthworms after 3 months of exposure; mg CO2 emitted per g of live worms and per hour.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Effects of microplastics on respiration in tested earthworms after 3 months of exposure; mg CO2 emitted per g of live worms and per hour.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Effect of microplastics on individual survival in tested earthworms.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Effect of microplastics on individual survival in tested earthworms.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Briones M.J.I., Moran P., Posada D. Are the sexual, somatic and genetic characters enough to solve nomenclatural problems in lumbricid taxonomy? Soil Biol. Biochem. 2009;41:2257–2271. doi: 10.1016/j.soilbio.2009.07.008. - DOI
    1. Csuzdi C., Zicsi A. Earthworms of Hungary (Annelida: Oligochaeta, Lumbricidae) Hungarian Natural History Museum; Budapest, Hungary: 2003. p. 271.
    1. Adhikari K., Astner A.F., DeBruyn J.M., Yu Y., Hayes D.G., O’Callahan B.T., Flury M. Earthworms Exposed to Polyethylene and Biodegradable Microplastics in Soil: Microplastic Characterization and Microbial Community Analysis. ACS Agric. Sci. Technol. 2023;3:340–349. doi: 10.1021/acsagscitech.2c00333. - DOI
    1. Song J., Chen X., Li S., Tang H., Dong S., Wang M., Xu H. The environmental impact of mask-derived microplastics on soil ecosystems. Sci. Total Environ. 2024;912:169182. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.169182. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Suleiman H., Rorat A., Grobelak A., Grosser A., Milczarek M., Płytycz B., Kacprzak M., Vandenbulcke F. Determination of the performance of vermicomposting process applied to sewage sludge by monitoring of the compost quality and immune responses in three earthworm species: Eisenia fetida, Eisenia andrei and Dendrobaena veneta. Bioresour. Technol. 2017;241:103–112. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2017.05.104. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources