Scientific publications

Thepaper presents aninvestigation into theimpact ofmicroplastics, specifically spherical polysty-rene particles with anaverage diameter of160nm, onurban soils from various origins. These microplastics are represented bymicroplastic. Thestudy focused onthetopsoil layers ofparks andcourtyards inMoscow, including Urban Technosols andTechnosols with humic andtransport characteristics. Additionally, sam-ples from Maikop were analyzed, including Fluvic Phaeozems andEkranic Technosols. Sand andsand-peat models were also used inthestudy. Theconcentration ofmicroplastics inthesamples was kept at1%. Granulometric analysis was performed using laser diffraction. Low-temperature nitrogen adsorption anddesorption isotherms were obtained, andscanning electron microscopy (SEM) was employed tovisu-alize microstructural changes inthesoil samples. Astatistically significant effect ofmicroplastics (p<0.05) onthedispersion ofall soils under study was revealed. Thespecific surface area decreased by16.1–30.9%, while thevolume ofnitrogen adsorbed decreased by20.5–30%. Themost pronounced transformation was observed insoil samples from Moscow, which had ahigh total carbon content. Instructured soils such asFluvic Phaeozems (Technic), Constructozems from Maikops, thepresence ofpolystyrene induced aprocess ofstrong binding ofsoil particles. This was manifested inadecrease intheproportion ofsilt frac-tion andanincrease inthefine sand content. SEM data from thesurface ofasand substrate contaminated with polystyrene atthesame concentration confirmed theformation ofasand-polymer matrix. This result-ed from theformation ofpolymer films andbridges between mineral particles