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Environmental occurrences, fate, and impacts of microplastics
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Microplastics are distributed across oceans, freshwater, sediments, soils, and the atmosphere, with evidence of bioaccumulation and toxic effects in organisms, though current understanding of their fate, transport, and impacts in terrestrial environments remains far less developed than for marine settings.
Microplastics (MPs) are small plastic pieces with size less than 5 mm that have entered and polluted the environment. While many investigations including several critical reviews on MPs in the environment have been conducted, most of them are focused on their occurrences in marine environment. Current understanding on the occurrences, behaviors, and impacts of MPs in the terrestrial environment is far from complete. A systematic review of the literature was thus conducted to promote the research on MPs in the environment. This work is designed to provide a comprehensive overview that summarizes current knowledge and research findings on environmental occurrences, fate and transport, and impacts of MPs. In addition to discussing the occurrences, characteristics, and sources of MPs in the ocean, freshwater, sediments, soils, and atmosphere, the review also summarizes both the experimental and modeling data of the environmental fate and transport of MPs. Research findings on the toxic effects, bioaccumulation, and bioavailability of MPs in the environment are also covered in this critical review. Future perspectives are discussed as well.
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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.