Effects and the fate of metal-based engineered nanomaterials on soil ecosystem: A review

Metal-based engineered nanomaterials (MENMs) are increasingly being used in people's working lives, while metal-based engineered nanomaterials have important effects on soil ecosystems and play an important role in solving soil environmental problems, the hazards associated with MENMs cannot be ignored. Therefore, more and more scholars have studied the behavior and effects of nanomaterials in soils in recent years. In this review, we explore the articles on metal-based nanomaterials and soil ecosystems retrieved from various databases from 2012 to 2022. We discuss the mechanisms of toxicity of metal-based engineered nanomaterials, the current state of soil ecosystems over a short period, and the ecological effects of metal nanomaterials on soil microbes, earthworms, and plants and how these organisms take them up. We now know that although metal-based engineered nanomaterials have positive effects on soil ecosystems, their potential hazards are not negligible. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the effects of metal-based engineered nanomaterials on soil organisms and plants. Meanwhile, we should pay more attention to the negative effects of nanomaterials on soil ecosystems while exploring the positive effects of nanomaterials on soil ecosystems in future research.