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Combined Toxicity of PFAS and Microplastics in Aquatic Ecosystems: Synergistic, Additive, and Antagonistic Interactions
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Researchers reviewed the combined toxicity of PFAS and microplastics in aquatic ecosystems, finding that while synergistic interactions receive the most attention, additive and antagonistic outcomes are also common and depend on PFAS congener, polymer type, particle size, and species—warning against treating synergy as the default response and calling for standardized mixture-based exposure protocols to enable ecologically realistic risk assessment.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and microplastics (MPs) increasingly co-occur in aquatic ecosystems, creating complex mixture-toxicity scenarios that cannot be captured by single-contaminant frameworks. While several studies report synergistic interactions where combined effects exceed predictions from individual exposures, evidence also demonstrates additive and antagonistic outcomes depending on PFAS congener, polymer type, particle size, environmental conditions, and species tested. This review synthesizes current knowledge on these diverse interaction patterns and the physicochemical mechanisms behind them, including adsorption–desorption dynamics, vector-mediated transport, altered bioavailability, and stress-pathway modulation. Although synergistic effects are frequently emphasized in emerging literature, mixed outcomes are common and often environmentally driven, raising concerns about extrapolating synergy as the dominant response. Although single-contaminant exposures of PFAS and MPs are relatively well studied, most research on their combined toxicity remains restricted to short-term, laboratory-scale experiments that do not reflect long-term or multigenerational exposure patterns, or real-world ecological complexity. Critical research gaps therefore include environmentally realistic exposure scenarios, trophic-level interactions, multigenerational effects, and the influence of climate-driven stressors. To support ecologically meaningful risk assessment, mixture-focused approaches and standardized protocols are urgently needed. By integrating studies reporting synergistic, additive, and antagonistic effects, this review provides a balanced framework for understanding the real consequences of PFAS–MPs co-exposure and emphasizes why mixture-based assessments are essential for protecting aquatic ecosystems and human health.
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