Interactions between microorganisms and marine microplastics: A call for research

By J. Harrison, M. Sapp, M. Schratzberger, A. Osborn. 2011

200 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Synthetic thermoplastics constitute the majority by percentage of anthropogenic debris entering the Earth's oceans. Microplastics (=5-mm fragments) are rapidly emerging pollutants in marine ecosystems that may transport potentially toxic chemicals into macrobial food webs. This commentary evaluates our knowledge concerning the interactions between marine organisms and microplastics and identifies the lack of microbial research into microplastic contamination as a significant knowledge gap. Microorganisms (bacteria, archaea, and picoeukaryotes) in coastal sediments represent a key category of life with reference to understanding and mitigating the potential adverse effects of microplastics due to their role as drivers of the global functioning of the marine biosphere and as putative mediators of the biodegradation of plastic-associated additives, contaminants, or even the plastics themselves. As such, research into the formation, structure, and activities of microplastic-associated microbial biofilms is essential in order to underpin management decisions aimed at safeguarding the ecological integrity of our seas and oceans.

Subfields: Biomaterials, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Pollution

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/483119ff2e5ddb4ccaf6a2192912a3c7a77bb693

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Biomaterials

1. N. Prinz
2. Špela Korez

In Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

1. N. Prinz
2. E. Rebolledo
3. T. Hoellein
4. J. V. van Franeker
5. Špela Korez
6. S. Kühn
7. L. Hoogenboom
8. A. Koelmans

In Pollution

1. N. Prinz
2. E. Rebolledo
3. T. Hoellein
4. J. V. van Franeker
5. Špela Korez
6. S. Kühn
7. L. Hoogenboom
8. A. Koelmans

Citations in the corpus

• Understanding How Microplastics Affect Marine Biota on the Cellular Level Is Important for Assessing Ecosystem Function: A Review (2019, background): “Both lines of evidence highlight the likelihood of microplastic being ingested by different organisms for different reasons which needs to be better understood in a future with likely increasing amounts of microplastics in the ocean (Harrison et al. 2011; Allen et al. 2017).”
• Deleterious Effects of Litter on Marine Life (2015, background): “Also, a relationship between marine debris and coral diseases has been observed (Harrison et al. 2011).”
• Presence of microplastics and nanoplastics in food, with particular focus on seafood (2016, unknown): “It has been documented that plastic debris can act as a substrate for diverse microbial communities (Harrison et al., 2011, 2014; Zettler et al., 2013; McCormick et al., 2014).”
• Microplastic in Surface Waters of Urban Rivers: Concentration, Sources, and Associated Bacterial Assemblages (2016, background): “…on the interactions between November 2016 v Volume 7(11) v Article e0155618 v www.esajournals.org McCORMICK ET AL. microbes and microplastic (Harrison et al. 2011), and further research is necessary to understand microplastic’s ecological impacts via microbial community composition and…”
• Microplastics in freshwater ecosystems: what we know and what we need to know (2014, unknown): “focal point of interest [69-72].”
• Microplastic-Associated Biofilms: A Comparison of Freshwater and Marine Environments (2018, background): “In comparison with biopolymers, traditional plastics (such as PE, PET, and PP) will persist for even longer within aquatic environments (decades or centuries; [11, 63, 64]), with biodegradation typically preceded by abiotic weathering [24, 65].”