Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

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

Researchers conducted a 21-day manipulative experiment to test the combined effects of microplastic contamination and simulated marine heatwave conditions on carbon cycling in temperate coastal marine sediments, measuring changes in organic matter quantity, composition, and carbon degradation rates. They found that the simultaneous occurrence of microplastics and elevated temperatures produced distinct effects on sedimentary organic matter processing compared to either stressor alone.

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

Combined effects of microplastics and nitrogen on bivalve‐mediated biogeochemical cycling

Researchers investigated the combined effects of microplastic pollution and excess nitrogen on coastal sediment ecosystems mediated by bivalves. They found that when both stressors were present together, nitrogen processing responses changed in ways not seen with either stressor alone, and sediment health conditions worsened significantly. The study suggests that multiple environmental stressors can interact in unexpected ways that single-stressor studies would miss.

2026 Limnology and Oceanography
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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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

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

The effects of microplastic ingestion and environmental warming on camouflage and growth in common shore crabs

Researchers found that shore crabs exposed to both microplastics and warming water showed impaired camouflage ability and reduced growth compared to crabs exposed to either stressor alone. The combined effects of microplastic pollution and climate change may be more harmful to marine life than either threat in isolation.

2021 Open Research Exeter (University of Exeter) 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Concurrence of microplastics and heat waves reduces rice yields and disturbs the agroecosystem nitrogen cycle

Researchers found that while microplastics or heat waves alone had mild effects on rice crops, the combination reduced yields by about 32% and significantly lowered grain protein and nutrient content. The dual stress disrupted nitrogen cycling in the soil and shifted nutrient distribution within the plants, reducing photosynthesis. This matters because climate change and plastic pollution are increasing simultaneously in agricultural regions.

2023 Journal of Hazardous Materials 39 citations
Article Tier 2

Combined effects of global warming and microplastic exposure from individual to populational levels of a benthic copepod

This study examined the combined effects of global warming and microplastic exposure on aquatic organisms from the individual to the population level, investigating how these two co-occurring stressors interact. Warming amplified some microplastic effects, suggesting that climate change will exacerbate the ecological consequences of plastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems.

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

Disentangling microplastics effects on soil structure, microbial activity and greenhouse gas emissions

Researchers studied how microplastics affect soil structure, microbial activity, and greenhouse gas emissions, finding complex interactions that depend on microplastic type and concentration. The presence of microplastics in soils can alter the biological processes that regulate carbon storage and nutrient cycling.

2022 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Oysters under anthropogenic pressure: A cellular perspective on the interactive effects of microplastic pollution and climate change

Researchers exposed oysters to microplastics under combined conditions of elevated temperature and ocean acidification, finding that climate change stressors significantly altered the cellular response to MP pollution. Temperature had a stronger effect than acidification, and combined stressors produced non-additive interactions in immune and oxidative stress markers.

2025 Media (https://www.suub.uni-bremen.de/)
Article Tier 2

Dominant effects of elevated CO2 over microplastics on physiological and microbial responses of submerged aquatic plants in eutrophic waters

Researchers investigated the combined effects of elevated CO2 and microplastics on submerged aquatic plants in eutrophic water, finding that elevated CO2 dominated over microplastics in determining plant physiological and microbial responses. The study highlights that climate change variables may override microplastic stress in some aquatic plant systems.

2025 Plant Physiology and Biochemistry
Article Tier 2

Synergetic effects of chlorinated paraffins and microplastics on microbial communities and nitrogen cycling in deep-sea cold seep sediments

Researchers studied the combined effects of chlorinated paraffins and microplastics on microbial communities in deep-sea cold seep sediments. They found that the two pollutants together disrupted nitrogen cycling processes more severely than either one alone, altering the composition of key microbial groups. The study suggests that the co-occurrence of these contaminants in deep-sea environments could have cascading effects on important ocean nutrient cycles.

2024 Journal of Hazardous Materials 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Distribution and Metabolic Activities of Marine Microbes in Response to Natural and Anthropogenic Stressors

This review examines how natural stressors such as temperature warming and acidification, combined with anthropogenic pressures like biodiversity loss and water quality degradation, affect the distribution and metabolic activities of marine microbial communities. Researchers synthesized evidence showing that microbial responses to combined stressors are often non-additive and context-dependent, with implications for biogeochemical cycling in changing ocean environments.

2022 Journal of Marine Science and Engineering 2 citations
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

The effect of climate change and microplastics on the physiology of marine invertebrates of economic interest

This thesis examines how climate change and microplastic pollution interact to affect the physiology of marine invertebrates important for aquaculture. Combined stressors were found to have compounding effects on organisms like mussels and oysters, threatening both ecosystems and food security.

2023 LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas)