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Primate conservation: Lessons learned in the last 20 years can guide future efforts
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A 20-year retrospective on primate conservation threats found that habitat destruction and hunting have worsened, with emerging pressures including microplastic pollution and pesticide exposure now recognized as sublethal threats to primate health, while advances in protected area expansion and research tools offer new opportunities to prevent widespread extinction if conservation will is mobilized.
Twenty years ago, we published an assessment of the threats facing primates and with the passing of two decades, we re-evaluate identified threats, consider emerging pressures, identify exciting new avenues of research, and tackle how to change the system to rapidly advance primate and primate habitat conservation. Habitat destruction and hunting have increased, the danger of looming climate change is clearer, and there are emerging threats such as the sublethal effects of microplastics and pesticides. Despite these negative developments, protected areas are increasing, exciting new tools are now available, and the number of studies has grown exponentially. Many of the changes that need to occur to make rapid progress in primate conservation are in our purview to modify. We identify several dimensions indicating the time is right to make large advances; however, the question that remains is do we have the will to prevent widespread primate annihilation and extinction?
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Twenty years of microplastic pollution research—what have we learned?
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This review looks back at 20 years of microplastic research and finds that these tiny plastic particles are now found everywhere, from our oceans to our food and even inside human bodies. Contamination could double by 2040, and there is growing evidence of harm to both ecosystems and human health. The authors stress that clear solutions are urgently needed to reduce risks.
First Evidence of Microplastic Ingestion by an Arboreal Primate
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Researchers documented the first evidence of microplastic ingestion by an arboreal primate, finding green-colored plastic fiber filaments in the stomachs of two red howler monkeys in the central Amazon. The microplastics likely originated from decomposing ghost nets deposited on trees during seasonal flooding. The findings underscore that microplastic contamination has reached even remote forest-dwelling wildlife far from urban centers.
Microplastics and gut microbiomes impact on Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys in the Three Parallel Rivers region in China
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Researchers studied microplastic exposure in endangered Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys in China, finding that exposure levels were linked to provisioned food, social dominance hierarchy, and age. Evidence indicates that current microplastic intake levels did not cause significant gut microbiome disruption in these primates, providing a baseline for conservation planning.
Microplastic pollution - what have we learned from the last 20 years of research and what are the priorities ahead?
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This paper reviewed 20 years of microplastic research since the foundational 2004 study, summarizing what has been learned about sources, distribution, ecological impacts, and remaining knowledge gaps. The review emphasizes that while understanding has grown dramatically, key questions about dose-response relationships and long-term ecological effects remain unresolved.
Plastic Pollution and Ecosystem Health: Sources, Pathways, Impacts, and Mitigation Strategies
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Researchers reviewed how plastics from industrial, domestic, agricultural, and transport sources enter terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems via runoff, rivers, wastewater, and atmospheric deposition, fragment into increasingly mobile microplastics and nanoplastics, and drive biodiversity impacts through ingestion, chemical toxicity, and trophic transfer — identifying research gaps and calling for integrated policy and technological responses.
Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.