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Occurrence and Effects of Microplastics in Lake Ecosystems: Particular Focus on Migration in Water and Food Chains
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This review synthesizes findings on microplastic occurrence, sources, and ecological effects in lake ecosystems worldwide, with a focus on how microplastics migrate through water columns and accumulate across aquatic food chains. Lakes are critical freshwater resources for drinking water and fisheries, making the documented bioaccumulation and toxicity of microplastics in lake food webs a direct public health concern.
Microplastics have become a research hotspot in the environmental field owing to their persistence and complex ecological effects. Although microplastics have attracted public attention only recently, the microplastic pollution in lake, a unique water system characterized by their irreplaceable ecological value and special hydrodynamic conditions, were increasingly documented, calling for a summary of the most recent advance in this research area. Therefore, the sampling and analysis methods, occurrence, sources, and ecological effects of microplastics in lakes were summarized in this review. Various types of plastics are produced and used in large quantities for different purposes, resulting in microplastic pollution being widespread in lakes worldwide, albeit with different levels and characteristics. Microplastics constantly migrate and transform in lake ecosystems, exerting impacts on ecological, including pollution diffusion and biological toxicity. This review focused on the migration of microplastics in water and food chains, which is a different perspective than that considered in previously published reviews. This review also discussed the limitations of existing studies and made recommendations. Future research directions should include the following: 1) improving the baseline database of microplastic pollution in lakes; (2) unifying the sampling and laboratory analysis methods; (3) exploring the quantitative analysis methods of the sources, transportation, and fate of microplastics; (4) considering more factors to explore the effects of microplastics on lake ecosystems.
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This mini-review synthesizes findings from the 12 Indian lakes studied for microplastic contamination since the field's 2017 inception in the country, examining contamination levels, methodologies, and pollution sources across surface water, sediments, and biota. Freshwater lakes are critically understudied relative to marine environments, and the lack of standardized methods across studies makes cross-comparison difficult—limiting effective policy responses.
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A global literature review of microplastic research in urban lakes found widespread contamination across water, sediments, and fish, with published data concentrated in Asian megacities, while systematic open-access databases integrating raw cross-city data remain absent. Urban lakes serve as both sinks and exposure points for microplastics, making their monitoring critical for understanding human exposure risk in densely populated areas where billions of people live near potentially contaminated water bodies.
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Researchers reviewed the sources, physical and chemical characteristics, and environmental distribution of microplastics in aquatic ecosystems, covering both primary particles from industrial and personal care products and secondary particles generated through fragmentation of larger plastics. Understanding the diversity of particle sources and properties is foundational for modeling exposure pathways and predicting which ecosystems and human populations face the greatest contamination risk.
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Researchers reviewed how micro- and nanoplastics affect still-water ecosystems like lakes and ponds, where plastics can accumulate over time and disrupt aquatic organisms at the base of the food chain. These effects may ultimately impact water quality and the fish and wildlife that humans rely on.
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