Papers

Aging of microplastics increases their adsorption affinity towards organic contaminants

Researchers found that microplastics that have been weathered by sunlight and environmental exposure absorb significantly more chemical pollutants than fresh microplastics, with up to a 4.7-fold increase in adsorption. Ultraviolet exposure changes the surface chemistry of the plastics, making them stickier for contaminants. This matters because most microplastics in nature are weathered, meaning they may be carrying more toxic chemicals into the food chain than laboratory studies using new plastics would suggest.

Exploring the Complexities of Seafood: From Benefits to Contaminants

This review examines the dual nature of seafood as both a nutritional powerhouse and a potential source of harmful contaminants, including microplastics, heavy metals, and pathogens. While seafood provides essential omega-3 fatty acids and protein, contamination from microplastics and other pollutants can offset these benefits and pose health risks. The authors call for better monitoring and safety standards to ensure that the health benefits of eating seafood are not undermined by environmental contamination.

Uptake, tissue distribution, and toxicity of polystyrene nanoparticles in developing zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Researchers tracked the uptake and distribution of polystyrene nanoparticles in developing zebrafish and found that the particles accumulated in the yolk sac and then spread to the brain, liver, heart, and other organs. While the nanoparticles did not cause significant mortality or deformities, they did reduce heart rate and alter swimming behavior. The study suggests that nanoplastics can penetrate biological barriers and accumulate in multiple tissues during early development.

Adsorption of organic pollutants by microplastics: Overview of a dissonant literature

This review critically examines the scientific literature on how microplastics adsorb organic pollutants in aquatic environments. Researchers found significant inconsistencies across studies regarding the mechanisms and extent of pollutant uptake by microplastics, noting that factors like particle size, polymer type, and environmental conditions all play important roles. The study calls for more standardized research methods to better understand whether microplastics meaningfully increase human and wildlife exposure to these co-pollutants.

Unveiling the Microbial Realm with VEBA 2.0: A modular bioinformatics suite for end-to-end genome-resolved prokaryotic, (micro)eukaryotic, and viral multi-omics from either short- or long-read sequencing

Researchers introduced VEBA 2.0, an open-source bioinformatics software suite for analyzing complex microbial communities including bacteria, archaea, eukaryotes, and viruses from sequencing data. The tool enables comprehensive microbiome research, which is relevant to understanding how microbial communities interact with environmental contaminants like microplastics.

Reaching New Heights in Plastic Pollution—Preliminary Findings of Microplastics on Mount Everest

Effect of Biofouling on the Sorption of Organic Contaminants by Microplastics

Researchers studied how biofilm formation on microplastics affects their ability to absorb organic contaminants in aquatic environments. They found that as biofilms grew over 5 to 15 days on plastic surfaces, the sorption of hydrophilic compounds like methylene blue increased, while hydrophobic compound sorption was less affected. The study suggests that biofouling changes the surface chemistry of microplastics in ways that may alter how they transport different pollutants through water systems.

Hydrothermal liquefaction of sewage sludge for circular bioeconomy: Focus on lignocellulose wastes, microplastics, and pharmaceuticals

Researchers reviewed how a high-heat water process called hydrothermal liquefaction can convert sewage sludge — which is loaded with microplastics, pharmaceutical residues, and plant waste — into usable biofuel while neutralizing many of these contaminants. This approach offers a promising way to tackle the growing problem of sewage sludge disposal while recovering energy, though challenges remain in scaling it up economically.

Land–Sea Connection of Microplastic Fiber Pollution in Frenchman Bay, Maine

Researchers examined the land-sea connection of microplastic fiber pollution in Frenchman Bay, Maine, tracing terrestrial fiber sources through watershed transport to coastal accumulation and quantifying the contribution of inland human activity to marine plastic loads.

Airborne microplastic particles detected in the remote marine atmosphere

Researchers detected airborne microplastic particles — including polystyrene, polyethylene, and polypropylene — in aerosol samples collected over the remote North Atlantic Ocean far from land. Back trajectory analysis and matching polymer types in both air and seawater suggest the ocean surface itself is a source of airborne microplastics, with true particle counts likely higher than detected since only particles above 5 micrometers were analyzed.

Open science resources from the Tara Pacific expedition across coral reef and surface ocean ecosystems

Researchers from the Tara Pacific expedition collected nearly 58,000 samples from coral reefs and ocean surface waters across 32 Pacific islands between 2016 and 2018, creating a massive open-access dataset for studying ocean ecosystems. This publicly available resource allows scientists worldwide to investigate a wide range of questions about coral reef health, ocean biodiversity, and environmental change.

An integrative assessment of the plastic debris load in the Mediterranean Sea

Researchers analyzed over 75,000 plastic pieces collected across the Mediterranean Sea during the Tara expedition, estimating roughly 650 billion plastic particles float on its surface, with the highest concentrations near northwestern coastal regions, and found that most plastics are in an advanced state of fragmentation from repeated stranding and resuspension.

Emerging investigator series: microplastic-based leachate formation under UV irradiation: the extent, characteristics, and mechanisms

Six common microplastic types were exposed to UV irradiation to characterize surface changes and leachate chemical profiles, finding that UV treatment generated oxidized surface groups and released diverse organic compounds. Leachate composition varied by polymer type, highlighting the role of weathering in generating secondary chemical pollution from microplastics.

Functional trait‐based approaches as a common framework for aquatic ecologists

This paper proposes a functional trait-based framework to unify aquatic ecology research across freshwater, marine, benthic, and pelagic systems. By using organism traits rather than taxonomic identity as the common currency, the framework aims to enable knowledge sharing and the discovery of general ecological rules across ecosystems.

Quantitative imaging datasets of surface micro- to mesoplankton communities and microplastic across the Pacific and North Atlantic oceans from the Tara Pacific expedition

During the Tara Pacific expedition (2016–2018), researchers collected and photographed vast numbers of plankton and particles from the surface of the Pacific and North Atlantic oceans, including microplastic particles captured alongside living microscopic organisms. The resulting imaging datasets — covering organisms from tiny phytoplankton to centimeter-scale zooplankton — provide an unprecedented baseline for studying how microplastics are distributed alongside marine life across two major ocean basins. These open datasets are a resource for future research on microplastic-plankton interactions at a global scale.

Valorization of Seafood Processing Byproducts for Sustainable Fertilization: Opportunities and Food Safety Considerations in Agriculture 4.0

This review explores the potential of using seafood processing waste — fish offal, shellfish shells, and aquaculture effluents — as natural fertilizers in modern farming systems. While these byproducts are rich in nutrients and could reduce reliance on synthetic fertilizers, the paper also flags important food safety concerns, including the presence of microplastics in marine-derived materials that could be introduced to agricultural soils. The authors conclude that seafood-derived fertilizers are promising for circular agriculture, but careful screening for contaminants including microplastics is essential before widespread adoption.

Accumulation and effects of microplastic fibers in American lobster larvae (Homarus americanus)

Researchers investigated the effects of microplastic fibers (MPF) on American lobster larvae across four developmental stages, finding that only the highest MPF concentrations reduced early larval survival while oxygen consumption rates were suppressed in later larval stages exposed to high concentrations. The study showed that MPF accumulation, ingestion, and effects were all dependent on larval stage, MPF concentration, and food availability.

The SORTEE guidelines for data and code quality control in ecology and evolutionary biology

Scientists created new guidelines to help make sure research data and computer code are properly checked before studies get published. Many scientific journals require researchers to share their data, but the quality has been poor and other scientists often can't reproduce the results. These guidelines give editors a clear checklist to verify research quality, which should lead to more trustworthy science that people can rely on for important decisions.

Modified linear solvation energy relationships for adsorption of perfluorocarboxylic acids by polystyrene microplastics

Researchers developed modified linear solvation energy relationship models to predict how perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFAS) adsorb onto polystyrene microplastics in water, accounting for the ionic state of PFAS at environmental pH and improving the accuracy of fate predictions.

Cellulose Nanofibrils Dewatered with Poly(Lactic Acid) for Improved Bio-Polymer Nanocomposite Processing

This paper is not about environmental microplastics; it describes a manufacturing process for combining cellulose nanofibers with polylactic acid (a biodegradable bioplastic) to make stronger composite materials, with no relevance to plastic pollution or human health risk.

Transport Mechanism of Microplastic in the Environment

Unraveling Co-Pyrolysis Mechanisms for Municipal Sludge and Microplastics: Thermodynamic, Kinetic, and Product Insights

Wastewater treatment plants produce large quantities of sewage sludge, which is often contaminated with microplastics from household and industrial sources. This study tested whether co-pyrolyzing sludge with polyethylene (HDPE) or PET plastic waste at high temperatures could improve energy recovery while processing microplastics. Adding 30% HDPE maximized the overall pyrolysis efficiency and changed the chemical reaction pathways, while PET had stronger facilitating effects at mid-range temperatures. The research suggests that co-pyrolysis could serve the dual purpose of sludge disposal and microplastic destruction, though the altered reaction kinetics and product mixtures require careful management.

Emerging investigator series: suspended air nanobubbles in water can shuttle polystyrene nanoplastics to the air–water interface

Nanobubbles suspended in water can physically carry nanoplastic particles to the air-water interface and concentrate them there, but only when the repulsive electrical charge between the particles and bubbles is reduced by adjusting pH. This discovery points toward a potential low-energy method for removing nanoplastics from water, which is currently one of the hardest fractions of plastic pollution to filter out.

Optimization of experimental conditions for exposure of larval mussels (Mytilus californianus) to microplastic particles

Researchers optimized an exposure system for testing the effects of microplastic particles on larval mussels (Mytilus californianus), addressing the challenge of keeping particles suspended and preventing clumping during experiments. Establishing reliable exposure protocols is critical for generating accurate ecotoxicology data on how microplastics affect early-life-stage marine bivalves, which are commercially important and ecologically sensitive.