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Bioavailability and toxicity of microplastics to fish species: A review
Summary
This review summarizes current knowledge about microplastic ingestion and its toxic effects in fish species worldwide. Researchers found that microplastics have been detected in fish from nearly all types of aquatic habitats, and both field and laboratory studies confirm fish are highly susceptible to ingesting these particles. The study notes that microplastics alone or combined with other pollutants can cause various health problems in fish, raising concerns about implications for human seafood consumption.
The prevalence of microplastics in aquatic environments has raised concerns about their availability and risks to aquatic biota. Since fish is an important source of animal protein for human beings, the occurrence and potential impacts of microplastics in fishes deserve special attention. Although there have been an increasing number of studies concerning microplastics ingestion and effects in fish, review papers specifically focusing on this issue are few. This review summarized the current knowledge about the bioavailability and toxicity of microplastics to fish species. By collating literatures, it can be concluded that microplastics contamination could occur in almost all types of aquatic habitats around the globe. Both field and laboratory studies suggest that fishes are very susceptible to microplastics ingestion. Compared with marine species, freshwater fishes have been less studied. Microplastics alone or in combination with other contaminants could cause various health problems to fish after exposure. There still exist some debates over the environmental relevance of the laboratory-based effect studies and the relative contribution of microplastics in increasing the exposure of fish to hazardous chemicals. Hopefully, this review could extend the current knowledge on the ecotoxicological impacts of microplastics contamination to fish and provide guidance for future research.