Microplastics in aquatic environments: Occurrence, accumulation, and biological effects.
By Shen Xu, Jie Ma, R. Ji, Ke Pan, Aijun Miao. Science of the Total Environment, 2019
675 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Microplastics, whether originating directly from industrial and household products or from the degradation of larger plastics, are currently of intense global concern. These particles are present in aquatic environments in high concentrations and may adversely affect aquatic organisms. An additional concern is the ability of microplastics to adsorb inorganic and organic pollutants and subsequently liberate them into marine and freshwater systems. In this review, we report on the occurrence and abundance of microplastics in the global aquatic environment. We then consider the accumulation (uptake, distribution, and elimination) of microplastics in aquatic organisms and the important factors that lead to bioaccumulation. The effects of microplastics on aquatic organisms of different trophic levels are also discussed. Several studies have shown that the size, shape, and surface physicochemical characteristics of microplastics are essential determinants of their biological effects. Finally, we examine the combined effects of microplastics and other pollutants, including persistent organic pollutants and heavy metals. Our review concludes by suggesting future lines of research based on the remaining knowledge gaps in microplastic research.
Subfields: Biomaterials, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Pollution
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f036221b0a62fc6e90c2ff201a031a97801c4643
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Citations in the corpus
- Impacts of Plastic Pollution on Ecosystem Services, Sustainable Development Goals, and Need to Focus on Circular Economy and Policy Interventions (2021, background): “Plastic waste mismanagement is affecting the terrestrial ecosystems [47,264]; however, a large number of research studies are reported for aquatic ecosystems [44,48,118].”
- Microplastics in Freshwater: What Is the News from the World? (2020, background): “Both lentic and lotic ecosystems are potentially at risk, based on the hazard of fMPs demonstrated in laboratory studies [26,28].”