Microplastics (MPs) are widely present in farmland soil as an emerging contaminant. This paper serves as a comprehensive and systematic review of research progress on the characteristics of distribution, abundance, sources, shape, polymer composition, size, and migration of MPs in farmland soils around the world. Moreover, research prospects were also proposed. MPs have been detected in farmland soils around the world, mainly coming from agricultural plastic films, organic fertilizers, sludge, surface runoff, agricultural irrigation, atmospheric deposition, and tire wear particles. The morphology of MPs in soil mainly includes debris, fibers, and films. MPs polymer forms mainly include polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene. Farmland land use significantly affects soil MPs abundance. Additionally, the abundance of MPs increase with the reduction in size. MPs in soil can migrate to deep soil through tillage, leaching, bioturbation, and gravity. Research on soil MPs detection methods, database establishment, safety thresholds, migration and transformation laws, potential ecological health risk assessment, and the construction of prevention and control technology systems should be strengthened in the future. The paper can provide a reference for the risk control and governance of farmland soil MPs pollution.
Keywords: characteristic; farmland soil; microplastics(MPs); migration; polymer.