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Plastic Pollution and Ecosystem Health: Sources, Pathways, Impacts, and Mitigation Strategies
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Researchers reviewed how plastics from industrial, domestic, agricultural, and transport sources enter terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems via runoff, rivers, wastewater, and atmospheric deposition, fragment into increasingly mobile microplastics and nanoplastics, and drive biodiversity impacts through ingestion, chemical toxicity, and trophic transfer — identifying research gaps and calling for integrated policy and technological responses.
Plastic pollution is a major global environmental challenge driven by the large-scale production and persistence of plastic materials. This review examines the sources, pathways, distribution, and ecological impacts of plastics across terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems. Plastics originate from industrial, domestic, agricultural, and transport-related activities and enter the environment through runoff, river systems, wastewater, and atmospheric processes. Over time, they fragment into microplastics and nanoplastics, increasing their mobility and bioavailability. These particles are widely distributed in soil, water, and air, posing serious risks to biodiversity. Key impacts include ingestion, entanglement, habitat disruption, and chemical toxicity, along with trophic transfer within food webs. The study highlights existing research gaps and emphasizes the need for integrated strategies involving policy, technology, and public awareness to mitigate plastic pollution and protect ecosystem health.
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Plastic Pollution and Ecosystem Health: Sources, Pathways, Impacts, and Mitigation Strategies
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Researchers synthesized current knowledge on plastic pollution across terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems, tracing source pathways from industrial and domestic activities through fragmentation into microplastics and nanoplastics, and mapping impacts including trophic transfer, chemical toxicity, and biodiversity loss.
Plastic Pollution is a Serious Menace to Ecosystem Health with Special Reference to Aquatic Ecosystems and its Associated Challenges, Opportunities, and Mitigations
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This review examines how plastic pollution, including microplastics, threatens aquatic ecosystem health, affecting fish, birds, and mammals through ingestion, entanglement, and chemical exposure. Researchers highlighted that our understanding of microplastic dynamics — their release, retention, accumulation, and transfer across ecosystems — remains limited. The study calls for more research into the long-term ecological consequences of microplastic contamination in aquatic environments.
Tracing the microplastic cycle in ecosystems with sources biological interactions and mitigation strategies
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Tiny plastic particles called microplastics have worked their way into soil, water, air, plants, animals, and eventually our bodies, and scientists still aren't sure exactly what long-term harm this causes to our health. This review pulls together existing research on how microplastics move through ecosystems and accumulate in living things, while also highlighting promising cleanup methods—but it stresses that more research is urgently needed to fully understand the risks and find better solutions.
Microplastics in ecosystems: their implications and mitigation pathways
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This review examined the implications of microplastic pollution across terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and outlined mitigation pathways to address this emerging environmental threat.
Unveiling the complex impact of microplastics on environmental health, ecosystems, and humans
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This comprehensive review consolidates current knowledge on microplastic pollution across marine, freshwater, terrestrial, and atmospheric environments. Researchers examined sources, transport pathways, impacts on living organisms, sampling techniques, and regulatory challenges, highlighting significant gaps in understanding the full scope of microplastic effects on ecosystems and human well-being.
Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.