Papers

61,005 results
|
Article Tier 2

Combined effects of microplastics contamination and marine heatwaves on carbon cycling in coastal marine sediments

Researchers investigated the combined effects of microplastic contamination and marine heatwaves on carbon cycling processes in coastal marine sediments, examining how co-occurring stressors interact to alter microbial carbon processing. The study found that microplastics and elevated temperatures associated with marine heatwaves produced interactive effects on sediment carbon cycling, demonstrating that these two anthropogenic pressures cannot be adequately assessed in isolation.

2024 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Dual regulatory effects of microplastics and heat waves on river microbial carbon metabolism

Researchers found that microplastics inhibited the thermal adaptation of river microbial communities during simulated heat waves, disrupting carbon metabolism processes and suggesting that combined microplastic pollution and climate warming may alter riverine carbon cycling.

2022 Journal of Hazardous Materials 23 citations
Article Tier 2

Warming Modulates Microplastic Impacts on Coastal Nitrogen Cycling by Synergistically Amplifying Sediment Hypoxia and Restructuring the Denitrifying Microbiome

Climate warming and microplastic pollution are converging stressors in coastal environments, but their combined effects on ocean chemistry were poorly understood. This microcosm study found that warming and microplastics interacted in complex, non-additive ways to disrupt nitrogen cycling in coastal sediments—sometimes amplifying each other's harmful effects and sometimes canceling them out, depending on the plastic type and the specific biological process. Most concerning, warming combined with both polyethylene and PBAT microplastics created more intense oxygen-depleted zones in sediments, which can trigger dead zones that suffocate marine life. These findings suggest that the ecological risks of microplastic pollution will worsen as oceans warm, complicating predictions based on either stressor studied alone.

2026 Environmental Science & Technology
Article Tier 2

Warming alters temporal patterns of microbial-mediated nitrogen cycling under microplastics stress in intertidal sediment ecosystems

Researchers incubated intertidal sediment microcosms with polyethylene microplastics at two temperatures (25 and 30 degrees C) to examine how warming interacts with microplastics to alter microbial nitrogen cycling. Elevated temperature and microplastic concentrations disrupted key nitrogen-cycling functions, with metagenomic analysis revealing shifts in functional gene composition that could affect coastal nutrient dynamics.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials
Article Tier 2

Interactions between dissolved organic matter and the microbial community are modified by microplastics and heat waves

Researchers studied how microplastics and heat waves together affect the relationship between dissolved organic matter and microbial communities in river water. They found that microplastics released their own organic compounds that reshaped microbial communities, and heat waves amplified these effects by altering carbon cycling. The study suggests that the combination of plastic pollution and climate-related temperature extremes may disrupt natural water carbon cycles more than either stressor alone.

2023 Journal of Hazardous Materials 45 citations
Article Tier 2

Culture dependent analysis of bacterial activity, biofilm-formation and oxidative stress of seawater with the contamination of microplastics under climate change consideration

Researchers examined how temperature changes and microplastic contamination jointly affect bacterial activity, biofilm formation, and oxidative stress in seawater. The study found that different plastic materials at varying temperatures produced distinct bacterial responses, suggesting that climate change could compound the environmental effects of microplastic pollution in marine settings.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 15 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics induced the differential responses of microbial-driven soil carbon and nitrogen cycles under warming

Researchers examined how the combination of microplastic pollution and warming temperatures affects soil carbon and nitrogen cycling driven by microbial communities. The study found that microplastics altered microbial responses to warming in ways that disrupted both carbon decomposition and nitrogen transformation processes in soil.

2023 Journal of Hazardous Materials 30 citations
Article Tier 2

Interactive effects of microplastic pollution and heat stress on reef-building corals

This study tested the combined effects of microplastic exposure and heat stress on reef-building corals, finding that the combination caused more damage than either stressor alone. As climate change raises ocean temperatures, the simultaneous pressure from plastic pollution may accelerate coral reef decline.

2021 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Interactive effects of microplastic pollution and heat stress on reef-building corals

Researchers tested the combined effects of microplastic pollution and heat stress on five reef-building coral species in controlled laboratory experiments. They found that while heat stress caused significant bleaching, tissue death, and reduced photosynthetic efficiency, microplastics alone had only minor effects at ambient temperatures, suggesting that climate change remains a far greater threat to coral reefs than microplastic pollution.

2021 Environmental Pollution 67 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics reduce eelgrass tolerance to heat stress with implications for restoration and blue carbon

Researchers found that microplastic pollution in sediments significantly reduced eelgrass root growth and energy reserves, and when combined with simulated marine heatwaves, the effects were even more severe. The study suggests that microplastics may undermine seagrass restoration efforts and blue carbon storage by depleting the underground energy reserves that these ecosystems depend on for recovery and growth.

2026 Environmental Research
Article Tier 2

The combined effects of ocean warming and microplastic pollution on marine phytoplankton community dynamics

Researchers studied the combined effects of microplastic pollution and rising ocean temperatures on tiny marine plants called phytoplankton. While microplastics alone had minimal impact at current temperatures, when combined with warmer water conditions, phytoplankton biomass dropped by 41% and diversity fell by nearly 39%. The study suggests that climate change may dramatically amplify the harmful effects of microplastic pollution on the ocean organisms responsible for a significant portion of global carbon capture.

2025 Marine Pollution Bulletin 4 citations
Article Tier 2

"Groundbreaking study: Combined effect of marine heatwaves and polyethylene microplastics on Pacific oysters, Crassostrea gigas"

Researchers studied the combined effects of marine heatwaves and polyethylene microplastics on Pacific oysters, an important aquaculture species. They found that elevated temperatures and microplastic exposure together caused greater stress responses than either factor alone, affecting the oysters' immune function and energy reserves. The study highlights the growing ecological risk from multiple environmental stressors acting simultaneously on marine organisms.

2024 Environmental Pollution 6 citations
Article Tier 2

A Study of the Effects of Microplastics on Microbial Communities in Marine Sediments

This study investigated how the presence of microplastics in marine sediments affects microbial communities and, specifically, the methane cycle, finding that microplastics significantly altered microbial community structure and function. Since marine sediment microbes play a critical role in regulating greenhouse gas emissions, microplastic contamination could have broader climate-relevant effects beyond direct toxicity.

2024 Highlights in Science Engineering and Technology 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Research progress in ecotoxicology of climate change coupled with marine pollutions

This review examined how rising ocean temperatures and acidification from climate change interact with marine pollutants including microplastics, finding that combined stressors often produce worse effects than either alone. The research underscores that plastic pollution cannot be addressed in isolation from the broader context of global climate change.

2017 Chinese Science Bulletin (Chinese Version) 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Water level regimes can regulate the influences of microplastic pollution on carbon loss in paddy soils: Insights from dissolved organic matter and carbon mineralization

Researchers examined how water level fluctuations in wetlands regulate the influence of microplastic pollution on carbon cycling, finding that alternating wet and dry conditions altered decomposition rates and greenhouse gas emissions in MP-contaminated wetland soils.

2025 Journal of Environmental Management 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Interactive effects of warming and microplastics on metabolism but not feeding rates of a key freshwater detritivore

Freshwater detritivores were exposed to microplastics at environmentally realistic concentrations under two temperature conditions to separate and combine effects, finding that warming and microplastics interacted to significantly increase metabolic rates but had no combined effect on feeding rates. The results highlight the importance of considering multiple stressors when assessing freshwater organism responses to microplastics under climate change.

2019 Environmental Pollution 82 citations
Article Tier 2

Warming and microplastic pollution shape the carbon and nitrogen cycles of algae

Researchers investigated how ocean warming combined with microplastic pollution affects carbon and nitrogen cycling in marine diatoms and dinoflagellates, revealing that these combined stressors alter key biochemical processes in dominant phytoplankton species.

2023 Journal of Hazardous Materials 51 citations
Article Tier 2

High temperatures and microplastic enhanced inorganic phosphorus mineralization and phoD-harboring bacterial abundance in paddy soil

Researchers studied how microplastic contamination in rice paddy soil interacts with high temperatures to alter nutrient cycling and soil bacteria. They found that at normal temperatures microplastics reduced key soil nutrients, but at elevated temperatures the effect reversed, actually increasing nutrient availability and microbial diversity. The findings suggest that climate change could amplify the ways microplastics disrupt agricultural soil ecosystems.

2025 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Biodegradable plastics can alter carbon and nitrogen cycles to a greater extent than conventional plastics in marine sediment

Researchers showed in controlled sediment microcosms that biodegradable plastics stimulate decomposition of buried marine organic carbon more than conventional plastics, producing twice the CO2 release to the water column and suppressing nitrogen flux — effects that could undermine coastal ecosystems' capacity to sequester carbon.

2020 The Science of The Total Environment 96 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic Mixture Diversity Destabilizes Mineral-Associated Carbon via Constraining the Accumulation of Microbial Necromass

Researchers exposed soil to increasing microplastic diversity (1–12 polymer types) and found that greater polymer diversity reduced microbial necromass carbon by up to 9% and mineral-associated organic carbon by up to 11%, suggesting diverse microplastic mixtures pose greater risks to soil carbon sequestration.

2025 Environmental Science & Technology 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Physiological and behavioural responses of aquatic organisms to microplastics and experimental warming

Researchers tested how microplastic exposure combined with different water temperatures affected the breathing, feeding, and movement of two common freshwater invertebrates. They found that while temperature had strong effects on all measured behaviors, microplastics caused additional changes in feeding rates and movement patterns that varied between species. The study highlights that the biological effects of microplastics may be amplified or altered under warming climate conditions.

2025 Environmental Pollution 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Colonization time of plastisphere drives the dynamics of organic carbon stability and microbial communities in seagrass bed sediments

Researchers conducted a 56-day experiment to study how microplastic biofilm formation affects organic carbon stability and microbial communities in seagrass bed sediments. They found that both polystyrene and polylactic acid microplastics altered microbial community structure and influenced carbon pool stability in the sediments over time. The study suggests that microplastic pollution may pose risks to carbon cycling and ecological functioning in seagrass ecosystems.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Organic enrichment can increase the impact of microplastics on meiofaunal assemblages in tropical beach systems

Researchers found that organic enrichment amplifies the negative impact of microplastics on meiofaunal assemblages in tropical beach sediments, with combined pollution causing greater diversity loss than either stressor alone.

2021 Environmental Pollution 30 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of microplastic particles on carbon source metabolism and bacterial community in freshwater lake sediments

A microcosm experiment tested how four common plastic types affect carbon metabolism and bacterial communities in freshwater lake sediments, finding that microplastics disrupted microbial carbon cycling and altered community composition.

2025 Environmental Pollution 3 citations