Embracing ecosystem complexity to understand the full impacts of microplastics pollution

Consequences of Microplastics on Global Ecosystem Structure and Function

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This review synthesizes evidence that microplastics disrupt global ecosystem structure and function by altering abiotic conditions, transferring through food webs, interfering with biogeochemical cycles, and acting as vectors for co-pollutants and pathogens. The breadth of impacts — from primary producers to decomposers, and from carbon cycling to reproductive toxicity — positions microplastic pollution as a systemic planetary threat comparable to climate change.

Ecological and Public Health Effects of Microplastics Pollution

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Researchers reviewed the ecological and public health consequences of widespread microplastic contamination, emphasizing the particles' ubiquity, persistence, and chemical diversity as compounding risk factors. The review synthesizes evidence on how microplastics harm wildlife and pose potential threats to human health across multiple exposure pathways.

The environmental effects of microplastics on aquatic ecosystems

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Researchers reviewed the growing body of evidence on how microplastics harm aquatic ecosystems, finding that long-term exposure damages organisms at multiple levels — from delivering toxic chemicals to disrupting reproduction — and calling for urgent action to reduce plastic leakage into waterways.

Unravelling the emerging threats of microplastics to agroecosystems

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This review synthesizes evidence that microplastics accumulate in agricultural soils from multiple pathways, disrupting soil physical and chemical properties, shifting rhizosphere microbial communities, and potentially entering plants through water and nutrient uptake channels. Because most microplastic research has focused on aquatic systems, the effects of soil MP contamination on crop yield, food quality, and long-term agricultural sustainability remain critically underexplored.

Influence of microplastic on the aquatic ecosystem