Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Transportation of microplastic during high-flow and low-flow seasons in southeastern Black Sea: A modelling approach

Researchers modeled the transportation and accumulation of floating microplastic particles released from the Degirmendere River into the southeastern Black Sea using the ECOMSED Lagrangian model, finding concentrations of 168-1412 particles/m3 during high-flow and 0-843 particles/m3 during low-flow seasons with particles consistently accumulating along coastal waters.

2022 Indian Journal of Geo-Marine Sciences 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Rivers and Wastewater-Treatment Plants as Microplastic Pathways to Eastern Mediterranean Waters: First Records for the Aegean Sea, Greece

Researchers provided the first records of microplastic amounts and types in rivers and wastewater effluents entering the Aegean Sea in Greece, finding microplastics in both an urban river and a semi-urban river with a wastewater treatment plant discharge point.

2021 Sustainability 32 citations
Article Tier 2

Nehirlerde Mikroplastik Kirliliği ve Hidrodinamik Modellenmesi

This Turkish-language review covers microplastic pollution in rivers, including sources, transport mechanisms, and hydrodynamic modeling approaches. Rivers are the primary pathway by which microplastics move from land-based sources to the ocean.

2021 European Journal of Science and Technology 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Riverine Microplastic Loading to Mersin Bay, Turkey on the North-eastern Mediterranean

Researchers characterized microplastics in eight rivers discharging into Mersin Bay in the northeastern Mediterranean, finding fibres dominated at 83.5% of particles and calculating a total load of approximately 1,200 billion particles delivered to the bay. Microplastic characteristics in the rivers closely matched those previously documented in the marine environment of Mersin Bay.

2022 Turkish Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 24 citations
Article Tier 2

Modeling transport of microplastics in enclosed coastal waters: A case study in the Fethiye Inner Bay

A numerical model was used to simulate how microplastic particles move through the Fethiye Inner Bay in Turkey, identifying coastal areas where plastics are likely to accumulate. Such transport models are essential for predicting where marine protected areas and cleanup efforts will be most effective.

2019 Marine Pollution Bulletin 43 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic Contamination Hotspots in the Sakarya, a Major Anatolian River: Evidence from Water and Sediment

Researchers sampled water and sediment at 10 stations along approximately 800 km of the Sakarya River in Turkey, finding microplastic concentrations up to 166.7 particles/m³ in surface water with PET and PVC dominant, and estimating annual transport of approximately 10¹¹ particles to downstream environments.

2026
Article Tier 2

Modelling Microplastic Transport in River Systems Using the SWAT Hydrological Model

Researchers developed a novel modelling approach using the SWAT hydrological model to simulate microplastic transport through river basin systems, integrating hydrological and physical plastic properties. The model provides a tool for understanding the spatial and temporal dynamics of freshwater microplastic pollution to support mitigation planning.

2025 Natural and Engineering Sciences
Article Tier 2

Modeling the Pathways and Accumulation Patterns of Micro- and Macro-Plastics in the Mediterranean

A basin-scale hydrodynamic model tracked plastic debris pathways in the Mediterranean Sea, showing that coastal currents concentrate plastics in the northwestern basin and that both riverine inputs and sea-based sources contribute substantially to the distribution hotspots observed at the surface.

2021 Frontiers in Marine Science 86 citations
Article Tier 2

A numerical model of microplastic transport for fluvial systems

Researchers developed a reduced-complexity numerical model of microplastic erosion, transport, and deposition in fluvial systems, applying it to the river Têt in France and finding that a large proportion of microplastics become entrained in river sediments before reaching the ocean.

2024
Article Tier 2

Spatio-temporal distribution of microplastic abundances in Izmir Bay (eastern Aegean Sea)

Sampling surface water and sediments at ten stations in Izmir Bay (eastern Aegean Sea) revealed widespread MP pollution, with concentrations up to 8 million particles per km² of surface water, dominated by plastic fragments. The study fills a gap in Mediterranean MP data and highlights the bay's vulnerability to contamination from nearby rivers, ports, and maritime traffic.

2023 Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 9 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic transport in European river networks

Researchers estimated the average annual load of microplastics transported to seas and oceans from 125 European catchments by coupling a mass balance model with a graph-theory river network model incorporating wastewater treatment plant effluents, surface runoff, and combined sewer overflows.

2024
Article Tier 2

Spatio-Temporal Distribution and Characterization of Microplastic Pollution in The Three Main Freshwater Systems (Aksu and Köprü Streams, Manavgat River) And Fishing Grounds Located in Their Vicinities in The Antalya Bay

Researchers found 2,444 microplastics across three freshwater systems near Antalya Bay, Turkey, with fibers (57%) and fragments (33%) dominating, and polyethylene and polypropylene as the most common polymers, showing a homogeneous pollution pattern across all sampling sites.

2021 Turkish Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 9 citations
Article Tier 2

Rivers as Conduits: A Comprehensive Model of Microplastic Fate and Transport

This study developed a comprehensive model of microplastic fate and transport in rivers, integrating processes of erosion, resuspension, sedimentation, and burial to simulate how microplastics move through river networks toward the ocean.

2024
Article Tier 2

Evaluation des apports fluviaux de microplastiques et modélisation de leur dispersion en mer Méditerranée

This French doctoral research estimated the annual flux of microplastics from rivers into the Mediterranean Sea and used transport models to track their dispersal. The results show that rivers are the dominant pathway delivering microplastics to the Mediterranean, and the modeling reveals hotspots of accumulation in specific coastal areas.

2021 ZooKeys
Article Tier 2

A numerical model of microplastic erosion, transport, and deposition for fluvial systems

Researchers developed a numerical model of microplastic erosion, transport, and deposition in river systems, finding that rivers act as temporary sinks trapping significant fractions of MPs before they reach the ocean, with implications for estimating marine MP loading from terrestrial sources.

2025 Earth Surface Dynamics 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Micro- and mesoplastics in Northeast Levantine coast of Turkey: The preliminary results from surface samples

Researchers conducted the first microplastic survey of the northeastern Levantine coast of Turkey in Iskenderun and Mersin Bays, measuring an average of 0.376 items/m² at the sea surface, with the highest concentrations near a river mouth, at levels comparable to other Mediterranean regions.

2017 Marine Pollution Bulletin 141 citations
Article Tier 2

A numerical model of microplastic transport for fluvial systems in the land-sea continuum

A reduced-complexity numerical model was developed to simulate how microplastics erode, transport, and deposit through river systems, applied to the Têt River in France. The model successfully reproduced observed microplastic fluxes and reveals that rivers likely act as significant reservoirs trapping plastic on its journey from land sources to the ocean, suggesting current estimates of marine microplastic inputs may be underestimates.

2024 2 citations
Article Tier 2

How microplastics quantities increase with flood events? An example from Mersin Bay NE Levantine coast of Turkey

Sampling before and after major flood events in Mersin Bay, Turkey showed that microplastic concentrations in coastal waters increased significantly following floods, likely due to transport of plastic waste from land. The results provide direct evidence that extreme rainfall events can rapidly escalate microplastic pollution in coastal marine environments.

2018 Environmental Pollution 202 citations
Article Tier 2

From source to sink: part 1—characterization and Lagrangian tracking of riverine microplastics in the Mediterranean Basin

Researchers characterized riverine microplastics from source to coastal sink, using Lagrangian tracking to trace the transport of particles from inland rivers to coastal deposition zones and identifying key retention points in the system.

2024 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 9 citations
Article Tier 2

Limited role of discharge in global river plastic transport

A new modeling framework proposes that riverine plastic transport is driven primarily by plastic availability in the catchment rather than river discharge, challenging the assumption that high-flow events are the main driver of plastic export to the ocean.

2024 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Knowledge about Microplastic in Mediterranean Tributary River Ecosystems: Lack of Data and Research Needs on Such a Crucial Marine Pollution Source

This review surveys the limited literature on microplastic pollution in freshwater rivers feeding the Mediterranean Sea, finding major gaps in data and inconsistent methods. The authors call for standardized monitoring protocols to better understand how rivers transport microplastics from land to the ocean.

2020 Journal of Marine Science and Engineering 42 citations
Article Tier 2

On modeling the fate of microplastics along river networks

Researchers developed and applied a modeling framework to simulate the fate and transport of microplastics along river network systems, treating rivers as key conduits transferring land-based microplastic pollution to marine environments. The model accounted for particle ingestion risks to aquatic organisms and evaluated the long-term persistence and transport dynamics of microplastics across freshwater networks.

2022
Article Tier 2

Macroplastic Debris Transfer in Rivers: A Travel Distance Approach

A travel-distance modeling approach was applied to macroplastic debris in rivers, finding that plastic transport is strongly episodic and controlled by flood events, with smaller and more buoyant items traveling farther, and riverine inputs to the ocean likely underestimated by sampling methods that miss high-flow transport pulses.

2021 Frontiers in Water 66 citations
Article Tier 2

Nehir kaynaklı mikroplastik tasınımı ve birikim alanlarının mekansal analizi: Melen Havzası orneği

Researchers used spatial analysis to map microplastic transport and accumulation zones across the Melen River Basin in Turkey, identifying freshwater systems as major conduits for microplastics reaching marine environments.

2024 OpenMETU (Middle East Technical University)