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Microplastics: Devastation and destination in aquatic ecosystem
Summary
This review examines the sources, environmental distribution, and ecological impacts of microplastics in aquatic ecosystems, highlighting their persistence across global environments including polar regions and their passage through wastewater treatment plants largely intact. The authors discuss toxicological risks to aquatic biota arising from both the physical presence of particles and their role in transporting co-contaminants.
Plastic pollution is a major global issue due to its non-biodegradability and persistence in nature. Plastics take thousands of years to degrade and can be converted into microplastics which are very harmful to all living biota due to their extensively small size (≤ 0.5 mm). Even though microplastics are not completely separated during wastewater treatment in plants (WWTPs). MPs are converted from highly stable and different kinds of polymers like polystyrene, polyethylene, etc., and radically distributed across the globe including the Arctic and Polar regions which fascinate scientists and researchers in addressing the issue. Due to the microscopic dimension of plastics, MPs has been entering through various pathways into the food webs of various aquatic fauna and indirectly or directly affecting the ecosystem including human health. Therefore, MPs are an inevitable and emerging threat especially for the aquatic ecosystems. This review discusses briefly the types, sources, chemical properties, and effects of MPs on aquatic biota.
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