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Nano-Scale Plastic Pollution in the Marine Species: A Review
Summary
This review summarizes research on nano-scale plastic pollution in marine species, covering how nanoplastics are produced from larger plastics, how they enter organisms, and the toxic effects they cause in marine life. Because of their tiny size, nanoplastics can penetrate cells and tissues that larger microplastics cannot reach.
The long-term properties of plastic have been causing persistent marine pollution for decades. The adverse impacts have been found in marine organisms worldwide. Currently, their degraded products-microplastics and nanoplastics-represent emerging plastic issues. Microplastic pollution has drawn attentions in many research fields and the general public. Many types of literature have documented their adverse impacts, distribution, and origins. Hence, many review studies have been conducted on microplastics rather than nanoplastics. Therefore, this review is focused on nanoplastic contamination in marine ecosystems, their origins, distributions, fate, and impacts on marine organisms. This review paper provides an overall picture of nanoplastic pollution on a global scale. The impacts of nanoplastic on marine organisms gene expression at the cellular and tissue levels are evaluated. Moreover, the adverse effects of nanoplastics on the embryonic stages, growth, and mortality of marine species are also discussed. The present review also gathers information to generate future research perspectives, and aims to highlight the need for researching on nanoplastics in the aquatic environment while providing critical perspectives for setting future research objectives.