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Assessment of Different Contaminants in Freshwater
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This comprehensive review examines freshwater contamination by multiple pollutant classes and biological stressors across the world. The authors discuss how pollution, water withdrawal, land use change, and infrastructure development have led to widespread freshwater biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation.
In many parts of the world, freshwater is a subject of frequent and intense large-scale disturbances. Pollution, water withdrawal, alteration of freshwater flows, road construction, aquifer mining, surface water diversion, desertification, wetland drainage, soil erosion in agriculture, deforestation, and dam building have led to some irreversible species losses and severe changes in community compositions of freshwater ecosystems. Pollution represents one of the most relevant impacts on freshwater environments, ranging from surface water bodies—such as springs, streams, rivers, lakes, and intermittent waterbodies—to groundwater and transitional habitats between surface waters and groundwaters. The origins and fates of pollutants are different and depend on various pollutants, including fertilizers with pesticides in agricultural areas, heavy metals, chlorinated organic compounds, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are predominantly derived from industrial and urban settlements. Another pollutant is microplastics, which can increase in concentration in freshwater bodies and constitute emerging contaminants in freshwater systems when taken together with pharmaceuticals, personal care products (PCPs), and endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs). The broad distribution of several pollutants leads to significant changes of freshwater ecosystems, together with the extinction of the most sensitive species or the drastic lowering in abundances of others, thus altering community compositions and the ecosystem services provided by freshwater biodiversity.
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Contaminant Classes, Sources, and Pathways in Freshwater Environments
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This book chapter reviewed major classes of chemical contaminants in freshwater environments, including microplastics, heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, and pesticides, outlining their sources, transport pathways, and ecological risks. The authors highlight the complexity of freshwater contamination and the challenges of regulation.
An Overview of Potential Threats to Freshwater Ecosystem
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This review provides an overview of major threats to freshwater ecosystems globally, including agricultural runoff, heavy metals, microplastics, and urbanization. It highlights how these pressures reduce the biodiversity and water quality of rivers, lakes, and wetlands. It is a general environmental science review aimed at students and researchers.
Emerging threats and persistent conservation challenges for freshwater biodiversity
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This review provides a comprehensive overview of microplastic pollution in freshwater environments, covering sources, distribution, and ecological impacts in rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. Researchers found that freshwater microplastic contamination is widespread globally but that standardized sampling and analysis methods are still lacking. The study calls for more consistent research approaches so that contamination levels across different water bodies can be meaningfully compared.
Water Pollution and the Global Crisis of Freshwater Quality
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This review pulls together existing research showing that freshwater around the world is getting more polluted, from chemicals and pathogens to newer threats like microplastics and drug residues that wash into rivers and lakes. This matters because contaminated water directly threatens human health, and the problem hits hardest in poorer, fast-growing communities that lack the infrastructure to clean their water supply. The authors argue that fixing this requires better regulations, smarter pollution monitoring, and stronger international cooperation before the damage becomes harder to reverse.
Global Endangerment of Freshwater Biodiversity
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This overview highlights that freshwater biodiversity faces severe and growing threats from human water consumption, pollution, and habitat alteration. While not focused on microplastics specifically, it frames plastic contamination as one of the multiple stressors pushing freshwater ecosystems toward collapse.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.