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Effects of plastic particles on aquatic invertebrates and fish – A review
Summary
This review summarizes current knowledge on how microplastics and their chemical additives affect aquatic invertebrates and fish, covering behavioral changes, developmental problems, and immune system disruption. Researchers found that microplastics can cause oxidative stress, inflammation, neurotoxicity, and altered gene expression across a wide range of species. The study also highlights how microplastics act as carriers for other toxic substances, potentially amplifying their harmful effects.
This review summarises the current knowledge on the effects of microplastics and their additives on organisms living in the aquatic environment, particularly invertebrates and fish. To date, microplastics have been recognised to affect not only the behaviour of aquatic animals but also their proper development, causing variations in fertility, oxidative stress, inflammations and immunotoxicity, neurotoxicity, and changes in metabolic pathways and gene expression. The ability of microplastics to bind other xenobiotics and cause combined toxicity along side the effect of other agents is also discussed as well. Microplastics are highly recalcitrant materials in both freshwater and marine environments and should be considered extremely toxic to aquatic ecosystems. They are severely problematic from ecological, economic and toxicological standpoints.