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Terrestrial ecologists should stop ignoring plastic pollution in the Anthropocene time.
Summary
This commentary argues that terrestrial ecologists have largely ignored plastic pollution as a major global change driver, despite plastics now being ubiquitous in continental ecosystems. The authors call for plastic pollution to be integrated into mainstream global change ecology research, particularly in understudied regions like South America.
The massive production of plastic started in mid 20th century. Today, only 60 years later and despite its obvious benefits, plastic pollution is ubiquitous, influencing all global environments and the planet's biota, including human-well-being. Plastic pollution may interact with other global change drivers, having large-scale, remote and long-lasting effects. Here we highlight that plastic pollution should be considered a main topic for global change research in the 21st century, especially among terrestrial ecologists at understudied continental regions such as South America.