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Microplastics
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This review synthesizes the current state of knowledge on microplastics — particles under 5 mm derived from both intentional manufacture and fragmentation of larger items — covering their diverse polymer types, shapes, sizes, and densities, and describing how these properties influence their environmental sources, fate, and ecological effects. The authors note that microplastics are now detected in virtually every environment studied, from deep ocean sediments to the atmosphere, highlighting the pervasive nature of this suite of contaminants.
Plastics less than five millimeters in size are very diverse and include many different polymers, chemical ingredients, shapes, sizes, densities, and colors, and so they are a suite of contaminants with different sources, fates in the environment, and effects. Some are made tiny (e.g., microbeads in consumer products, or “nurdles,” which are premanufacture pellets), while most are fragments of larger items (e.g., clothing, tires, bottles, cups, etc.). They are found everywhere they are looked for, including remote mountains and deep-sea trenches. They are ingested by many marine animals with varying effects; many are later egested, but some penetrate into various tissues of the body. Because they cannot be cleaned up, ways must be found to stop their flow into the waters.
More Papers Like This
Microplastics as Emerging Environmental Contaminants: Sources, Distribution and Ecological Implications
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This review summarizes current knowledge on microplastics as globally distributed environmental contaminants, covering their sources, transport pathways, and ecological impacts. Researchers highlight that these plastic fragments smaller than 5 mm are now detected in aquatic, terrestrial, and atmospheric environments and can enter food webs, while noting significant research gaps in monitoring and risk assessment.
Microplastic Pollution in the Environment
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This review examines the ubiquitous presence of microplastics as emerging environmental pollutants across all major environmental compartments, synthesizing data on their sources, fates, and concentrations over time and space to characterize the scale of global contamination.
Microplastics in the Environment
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This chapter reviews the sources, distribution, and environmental persistence of microplastics — small plastic debris less than 5 mm — in both marine and terrestrial environments. It provides an accessible overview of how microplastics enter ecosystems and the concerns they raise for wildlife and human health.
Emerging microplastics in the environment: Properties, distributions, and impacts
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This review provides a comprehensive overview of microplastic pollution, covering the most common types of plastics found in the environment, their physical characteristics, and how they are distributed across water, soil, and air. Researchers summarized the potential harmful effects of microplastics on ecosystems and living organisms. The study highlights significant knowledge gaps that still need to be addressed to fully understand the environmental and health risks of these tiny particles.
Microplastics in the Marine Environment: A Review of Their Sources, Formation, Fate, and Ecotoxicological Impact
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This review collates evidence on microplastics in the marine environment, covering primary and secondary sources, degradation pathways into particles under 5 mm, ecotoxicological effects on marine biota that ingest smaller particles, and the transport and deposition mechanisms governing microplastic fate in sediments, shorelines, and the deep sea.
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