Papers

The recovery of European freshwater biodiversity has come to a halt

Researchers analyzed 1,816 freshwater invertebrate community datasets from 22 European countries spanning 1968 to 2020, finding that biodiversity recovered steadily through the 1990s and 2000s thanks to water quality improvements, but has largely plateaued since the 2010s. Emerging threats including climate warming, emerging pollutants like microplastics, and invasive species are now offsetting earlier conservation gains, signaling that stronger protections are urgently needed.

Investigating Past, Present, and Future Trends on Interface Between Marine and Medical Research and Development: A Bibliometric Review

This bibliometric study maps 23 years of research at the intersection of marine science and medicine, finding a significant rise in publications exploring marine organisms for medical applications. Two main research areas emerged: natural product biochemistry and trace substance genetics, both with therapeutic potential. While not directly about microplastics, the study highlights growing interest in how ocean health connects to human health.

Microplastics increase cadmium absorption and impair nutrient uptake and growth in red amaranth (Amaranthus tricolor L.) in the presence of cadmium and biochar

This study tested how three common microplastic types affect a leafy vegetable (red amaranth) when combined with the toxic heavy metal cadmium. Polystyrene microplastics were especially harmful, increasing cadmium uptake by up to 158% while reducing the plant's ability to absorb essential nutrients like phosphorus and potassium -- meaning microplastics in farmland could make heavy metal contamination in food crops even worse.

The Essentials of Marine Biotechnology

This comprehensive article reviews the field of marine biotechnology, which harnesses ocean organisms for applications in medicine, food, cosmetics, agriculture, and energy. Researchers describe the enormous diversity of marine life, from microorganisms to deep-sea species, and the promising biomolecules they produce. The study outlines both the opportunities and the environmental responsibilities involved in developing products inspired by or derived from marine resources.

Blood Will Tell: What Hematological Analyses Can Reveal About Fish Welfare

This review makes the case for greater use of blood analysis in assessing fish health and welfare, noting that blood tests can reveal information about immune status, stress responses, and overall physiological condition. While the techniques have advanced considerably, from basic cell counts to modern genomic and proteomic approaches, fish blood is still not routinely analyzed in research or aquaculture. The study highlights that environmental stressors, including pollutants like microplastics, can be tracked through blood-based biomarkers.

Digital Twins of the Ocean can foster a sustainable blue economy in a protected marine environment

This paper describes how digital twin technology can create virtual models of ocean environments to support sustainable marine management. These models combine real-time ocean observations with predictive simulations to help monitor marine resources and track pollution. This approach is relevant to microplastics research because digital ocean twins could help model and predict microplastic transport and accumulation in marine ecosystems.

Microplastics and anammox: Unravelling the hidden threats to nitrogen cycling and microbial resilience

This review examined how microplastics disrupt nitrogen cycling in soil by interfering with specialized bacteria that remove nitrogen from the environment. Researchers found that microplastics alter microbial habitats, destabilize bacterial communities, and attract heavy metals that further inhibit these essential soil processes, with effects varying based on soil acidity and organic matter content.

Microplastics in freshwater sediment in the Indo-Sri Lankan region: a review of methodologies

This review systematically compared the methods used across 34 studies to sample, extract, and identify microplastics in freshwater sediments throughout India, finding no studies addressing the issue in Sri Lanka. Researchers highlighted significant inconsistencies in sampling techniques, extraction procedures, and identification methods across studies, making it difficult to compare results. The study calls for standardized protocols to enable more reliable tracking of microplastic pollution in freshwater sediments across the Indo-Sri Lankan region.

Monitoring Water Diversity and Water Quality with Remote Sensing and Traits

This study defines five characteristics of water diversity and quality that can be monitored using remote sensing technology, from local waterbodies to continental scales. Researchers demonstrate how satellite and aerial sensing methods can track changes in water traits, structure, and biological communities more efficiently than traditional in-person sampling. The approach is particularly relevant for detecting pollution impacts, including emerging contaminants, across large and dynamic aquatic ecosystems.

Advances in understanding of air–sea exchange and cycling of greenhouse gases in the upper ocean

This review summarizes the latest understanding of how greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane cycle between the ocean and atmosphere. Researchers found that while the ocean is well established as a major absorber of CO2 and a source of N2O, significant uncertainties remain about the processes controlling these gas distributions in the upper ocean. The study suggests that a coordinated global research effort is needed to understand how ocean warming, acidification, and deoxygenation will affect these critical gas exchanges.

Microplastics as a sedimentary component in reef systems: A case study from the Java Sea

Researchers investigated microplastic distribution in sediments from two tropical atoll reef platforms in Indonesia. The study found that microplastics are a component of reef sediments, with distribution patterns influenced by reef geomorphology and hydrodynamic processes, highlighting the need to better understand how microplastics accumulate in coral reef systems and their potential impacts on reef health.

Decreased feeding rates of the copepod Acartia tonsa when exposed to playback harbor traffic noise

Researchers investigated how playback of harbor traffic noise affects the feeding rates of the copepod Acartia tonsa, a key zooplankton species. The study found that exposure to anthropogenic underwater noise decreased copepod feeding rates, suggesting that increasing noise pollution from shipping and other human activities may disrupt zooplankton feeding behavior with potential cascading effects on marine food webs and carbon cycling.

Amount, distribution and composition of large microplastics in typical agricultural soils in Northern Germany

Researchers surveyed agricultural soils in Northern Germany for large microplastics and found contamination across all sampled fields, with polyethylene and polypropylene being the most common polymer types. Concentrations varied widely depending on farming practices, with fields receiving compost and sewage sludge showing higher contamination levels. The study provides important baseline data on microplastic pollution in European agricultural soils and identifies fertilization practices as a key contamination pathway.

Sustainable large‐scale production of European flat oyster (<i>Ostrea edulis</i>) seed for ecological restoration and aquaculture: a review

This review examines methods for the sustainable large-scale production of European flat oyster seed for both ecological restoration and aquaculture. Researchers assess current hatchery techniques, natural seed collection, and the biological challenges of scaling up production. The study highlights the importance of oyster restoration for ecosystem services including water filtration and habitat provision, which are relevant to managing pollution including microplastics in coastal environments.

Microbial resistance in rhizosphere hotspots under biodegradable and conventional microplastic amendment: Community and functional sensitivity

Microplastics in food chains: Global evidence, bioaccumulation, spatial distribution and health risks

Rhizosphere Keystone Microbiomes Promote Invasive Plant Growth under PLA and PVC Microplastic Stress: A Comparative Study with Native Species

Researchers compared how invasive and native plant species respond to soil contaminated with biodegradable and non-biodegradable microplastics. Invasive plants experienced less growth inhibition and selectively enriched beneficial bacteria in their root zones, forming more stable microbial networks. The study suggests that microplastic contamination in soils may inadvertently give invasive species a competitive advantage over native plants.

High levels of microplastics and microrubber pollution in a remote, protected Mediterranean Cladocora caespitosa coral bed

Researchers discovered high levels of microplastic and microrubber pollution in sediments surrounding a protected Cladocora caespitosa coral bed in the northwestern Mediterranean Sea. The study suggests that even protected marine areas with coral communities are not immune to plastic contamination, raising concerns about the ecological impact on these already threatened reef ecosystems.

Exploring untapped bacterial communities and potential polypropylene-degrading enzymes from mangrove sediment through metagenomics analysis

Researchers used metagenomics analysis to explore bacterial communities in mangrove sediments that may be capable of breaking down polypropylene plastic. The study compared microbial communities exposed to virgin and chemically pretreated polypropylene over several months. Evidence indicates that certain bacterial taxa in mangrove environments possess enzymes with potential polypropylene-degrading activity, suggesting possible biological pathways for plastic waste remediation.

Marine snow morphology illuminates the evolution of phytoplankton blooms and determines their subsequent vertical export

Researchers developed a method to automatically classify the shapes and structures of marine snow — clumps of organic particles that sink from the ocean surface and carry carbon to the deep sea. Understanding these particle shapes is important for predicting how much carbon the ocean can store, which affects global climate.

An archaeal lid-containing feruloyl esterase degrades polyethylene terephthalate

Researchers identified the first known archaeal enzyme capable of degrading polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a major plastic pollutant found worldwide. The enzyme, called PET46, comes from a deep-sea archaeon and showed degradation activity on PET comparable to previously known bacterial enzymes. The study expands the known diversity of plastic-degrading enzymes and suggests that organisms from extreme environments may harbor useful tools for addressing plastic pollution.

First Steps towards a near Real-Time Modelling System of Vibrio vulnificus in the Baltic Sea

Researchers developed initial steps toward a near real-time modeling system for Vibrio vulnificus in the Baltic Sea, testing hydrodynamic and biogeochemical model data as inputs to predict pathogen concentrations along the German coast.

Phytoplankton Communities’ Response to Thermal Stratification and Changing Environmental Conditions in a Deep-Water Reservoir: Stochastic and Deterministic Processes

Researchers studied how thermal stratification in a deep-water reservoir affects phytoplankton community structure and the processes governing species assembly. The study found that both deterministic factors like environmental filtering and stochastic processes influence phytoplankton distribution across water layers. Evidence indicates that prolonged thermal stratification driven by global warming is reshaping aquatic microbial communities in ways that could affect water quality.

Plastic and natural inorganic microparticles do not differ in their effects on adult mussels (Mytilidae) from different geographic regions

Researchers compared the effects of plastic microparticles and natural inorganic particles on mussels from five geographic regions, finding no significant differences between particle types, suggesting that physical particle stress rather than plastic-specific chemistry drives observed effects.