Impact of Microplastics on Forest Soil Properties in Pollution Hotspots in Alluvial Plains of Large Rivers (Morava, Sava, and Danube) of Serbia info:eu-repo/semantics/article All rights reserved Grujić, Tara Saljnikov, Elmira Mutavdžić, Dragosav Jovković, Marina Stefanović, Slobodan Miladinović, Vladimir Krnjajić, Slobodan Belanović Simić, Snežana Marjanović, Žaklina Forests 2025 eng https://unilib.phaidrabg.rs/o:7041 doi:10.3390/f16020363 soil plastic pollution; waste dumps in forests; microbial respiration; MP soil vertical dynamic application/pdf 3455517 bytes Abstract: Plastic pollution has become a major environmental problem, while the products of its degradation, microplastics (MPs), appear everywhere on Earth. Data on MPs in agricultural soils have appeared lately, but a significant knowledge gap exists regarding forest soils. In Serbia, municipal waste is often dumped in forests, creating environmental problems that have not been documented. To explore the impact of waste dumping and MPs on forest fluvisols, we evaluated MPs from topsoils of three waste dumps and adequate visibly plastic non-contaminated forest sites located in alluviums of the largest rivers in Serbia. For assessing the influence of environmental factors on soil MPs, samples were taken in three forest vegetational seasons, in two years. The impact of MPs on soil structure, chemistry, and microbial respiration (MR) was examined. Undisturbed soil columns from uncontaminated sites with added known MP particles were used to estimate the dynamic of MP transfer through the topsoil. Large aggregate formation, soil coarse sand content, specific mass, porosity, and available P, but not MR were affected by contamination. Seasonal and annual environmental changes significantly influenced the behavior of MPs in forest luvisols. MPs effectively penetrated the deeper layers of soil columns within 3 months, with strong accumulation in the 0–10 cm layer.