Plastic pollution is a global concern given its prevalence in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Studies have been conducted on the distribution and impact of plastic pollution in marine ecosystems, but little is known on terrestrial ecosystems. Plastic mulch has been widely used to increase crop yields worldwide, yet the impact of plastic residues in cropland soils to soil health and crop production in the long term remained unclear. In this paper, using a global meta-analysis, we found that the use of plastic mulch can indeed increase crop yields on average by 25%-42% in the immediate season due to the increase of soil temperature (+8%) and moisture (+17%). S U PP O RTI N G I N FO R M ATI O NAdditional supporting information may be found online in the Supporting Information section. How to cite this article: Zhang D, Ng EL, Hu W, et al. Plastic pollution in croplands threatens long-term food security. Glob Change Biol. 2020;26:3356-3367. https://doi.

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