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Plastics and Microplastics: Impacts in the Marine Environment

2020 23 citations

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Plastics and microplastics have achieved near-universal distribution in marine environments from surface waters to deep-sea sediments, persisting for decades while fragmenting into increasingly smaller and more biologically available particles. The growing concentration of microplastics in oceans represents a long-term threat to marine biodiversity and the food safety of seafood consumed globally.

Accumulation of plastics and, more recently, microplastics, in the marine environment has become a global concern. Plastics are highly durable materials and this persistence coupled with increasing emissions to the environment has resulted in a wide-scale...

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