Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

IAEA-NUTEC plastics initiative: Contributing to the global understanding of microplastic pollution in the ocean

This review examines the IAEA NUTEC Plastics initiative, a global network spanning 86 countries launched in 2019 to harmonize microplastic monitoring methods in marine and coastal environments, build national research capacity, and support achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 14.1 on reducing marine pollution.

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

IAEA-NUTEC Plastics Initiative: Advancing Global Understanding of Microplastic Pollution in the Ocean

This study describes the IAEA-NUTEC Plastics initiative, which is establishing a coordinated network of laboratories in over 100 countries to implement standardized microplastic sampling and analysis protocols, using radiometric and advanced technologies to improve the accuracy and cross-regional comparability of ocean microplastic data.

2025
Article Tier 2

African implementation of harmonized operational protocols for microplastics in beach sand and surface seawater under the IAEA NUTEC plastic initiative

This paper describes implementation of harmonized microplastic monitoring protocols in African countries through the IAEA NUTEC Plastics initiative, covering beach sand and seawater sampling aligned with the UN SDG 14 monitoring framework. The four-year regional project built analytical capacity across African institutions and generated baseline data for marine plastic pollution levels.

2025
Article Tier 2

The Caribbean Microplastics problem; harmonization of protocols through the IAEA.

This paper describes efforts by the IAEA NUTEC Plastics project to harmonize microplastic monitoring protocols across Caribbean countries, building regional capacity for standardized data collection and analysis. Participating countries established baseline contamination data using shared methods, enabling cross-country comparisons in a region where previous monitoring was highly fragmented.

2025
Article Tier 2

Development of harmonized operational protocols for the collection, identification and counting of microplastics within the IAEA NUTEC Plastics initiative

This paper describes the development of harmonized protocols for collecting, identifying, and counting microplastics under the IAEA NUTEC Plastics initiative, designed to enable comparable data across countries. The protocols cover seawater surface, beach sand, and biota sampling using nuclear and complementary analytical techniques.

2025
Article Tier 2

Tackling plastic pollution together: Examples of international collaboration for the monitoring and reporting of microlitter (including microplastics).

Researchers developed an international laboratory network of 15 facilities across Vanuatu, Belize, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia through the Commonwealth Litter Programme and Ocean Country Partnership Programme, providing harmonized equipment, protocols, and training to enable comparable microplastic monitoring in Global South countries. This collaborative infrastructure approach demonstrates how large laboratory networks with standardized methods are essential for producing large-scale baseline assessments of microplastic pollution.

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

Creation of an international laboratory network towards global microplastics monitoring harmonisation

International programs established a network of microplastics research laboratories across Global South countries, providing standardized equipment, training, and protocols. This effort aims to build local scientific capacity and ensure that microplastic monitoring data from different regions can be meaningfully compared, which is essential for understanding the true global scale of plastic pollution.

2024 Scientific Reports 24 citations
Article Tier 2

Tackling plastic pollution together: Examples of international collaboration for the monitoring and reporting of microlitter (including microplastics).

Researchers described international laboratory networks established through the UK's Commonwealth Litter Programme (CLiP) and Ocean Country Partnership Programme (OCPP) to build scientific capacity for microplastic and marine litter monitoring in Global South countries. The study presents examples of cross-border collaboration that provided infrastructure, training, and standardised methodologies to enable partner nations to produce reproducible and comparable data on plastic pollution entering the oceans.

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

Joint effort among research infrastructures to quantify the impact of plastic debris in the ocean

This collaborative overview coordinated monitoring of marine plastic debris across multiple research infrastructures, finding widespread and persistent contamination and calling for harmonized international observation protocols.

2019 Environmental Research Letters 38 citations
Article Tier 2

A field and laboratory manual for sampling, processing and reporting microplastics in coastal and marine environments

This paper presents a comprehensive, standardized field and laboratory guideline for sampling, processing, and reporting microplastics in coastal and marine environments, developed through international collaboration. The harmonized protocols aim to improve comparability of data across global monitoring programmes.

2025 Frontiers in Marine Science 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Global measurement of surface water microplastics using a unified size threshold

A globally deployable measurement approach was developed for monitoring microplastics on water surfaces using a unified protocol applicable across different geographic regions. Standardized global measurement methods are critical for generating comparable data needed to assess the scale of ocean plastic pollution.

2025 Water Research 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Standardised protocol for monitoring microplastics in seawater. Deliverable 4.1.

This protocol establishes standardized methods for monitoring microplastics in seawater as part of a coordinated European effort to understand the scale and distribution of ocean plastic pollution. Standardized monitoring is essential for producing the comparable data needed to inform policy and conservation responses.

2019 IOC of UNESCO (Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission) 21 citations
Article Tier 2

Standardised protocol for monitoring microplastics in sediments. Deliverable 4.2.

This paper presents a standardized protocol for monitoring microplastics in marine sediments, developed as part of an international project to harmonize sampling and analysis methods across different research groups. Having consistent protocols is essential for generating comparable data to track plastic pollution trends over time and location.

2018 IOC of UNESCO (Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission) 20 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

Towards a North Pacific Ocean Long-term Monitoring Program for Plastic Pollution: a Review of Global Occurrence of Microplastics in the Sea and Deep-sea Sediments

This systematic review summarizes research on microplastic contamination in sea sediments around the world, with a focus on the North Pacific Ocean. The findings highlight the need for standardized monitoring methods and long-term tracking programs, since understanding where microplastics accumulate in ocean sediments helps predict how they enter marine food chains and eventually reach our plates.

2024 Journal of Water and Environment Technology 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic and nanoplastic analysis methods, tests and reference materials

Researchers examined current microplastic analysis methods, reference tests, and reference materials, highlighting the limitations of manual counting approaches and evaluating alternatives to enable more scalable, consistent, and cost-effective monitoring of plastic litter accumulation in ocean environments.

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

Toward a long-term monitoring program for seawater plastic pollution in the north Pacific Ocean: Review and global comparison

This review compared marine plastic monitoring methods and contamination levels across ocean basins, finding that the North Pacific showed the highest microplastic levels globally and that minimum sampling cut-off size is crucial for meaningful data comparison across studies.

2022 Environmental Pollution 38 citations
Article Tier 2

Research progress in sources, analytical methods, eco-environmental effects, and control measures of microplastics

This review synthesizes global research on microplastic sources, analytical methods, ecological effects, and governance, calling for unified quantitative analysis methods and clearer traceability tools. The authors emphasize that controlling microplastics requires integrated management combining organizational cooperation, technological development, and regulatory frameworks.

2020 Chemosphere 289 citations
Article Tier 2

A Review on Microplastics in Offshore and Nearshore Waters

This short review covered sampling and analytical techniques used to quantify microplastics in nearshore and offshore ocean waters, providing an overview of published distribution data across different oceans and coastal zones to guide standardization of marine microplastic monitoring.

2025 Journal of Water Resource and Protection 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in Global Marine Waters and Biota: Effectiveness of Potential Bioindicators in Mirroring Local Pollution Levels

This review assessed the global occurrence of microplastics in marine waters and biota and evaluated the effectiveness of potential bioindicator species for monitoring plastic pollution. The authors find that standardizing bioindicator protocols is essential for tracking the effectiveness of microplastic mitigation efforts.

2023 Environmental Monitoring and Contaminants Research 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Progress on microplastics pollution and its ecological effects in the coastal environment

This review systematically summarizes a decade of research on microplastic pollution and its ecological effects in coastal environments worldwide, identifying persistent technical challenges in sampling standardization, particle identification, and ecological impact assessment. Researchers highlight the need for unified methodologies to better understand the sources, fate, and biological consequences of coastal microplastic contamination.

2015 Chinese Science Bulletin (Chinese Version) 29 citations
Article Tier 2

Development of cost-effective methodologies to identify and quantify microplastics in seawater samples

Researchers developed low-cost, practical methods for detecting and quantifying microplastics in seawater samples, addressing the lack of standardized protocols. Consistent, affordable detection methods are essential for expanding global microplastic monitoring and enabling meaningful comparisons across different regions and studies.

2020 Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Methods for sampling, processing, identification,and quantification of microplastics in the marine environment

This paper reviews and compares the various methods used to collect, process, identify, and quantify microplastics across different environmental samples. It highlights the lack of standardized protocols as a major obstacle to comparing results across studies and calls for methodological harmonization.

2020 Oceanography in Japan 12 citations
Article Tier 2

Toward In Situ Detection, Sizing and Identification of Microplastics in Water at the National Research Council of Canada

Researchers at the National Research Council of Canada described in-development in situ technologies for detecting, sizing, and identifying microplastics in ocean water, aiming to overcome the time and resource limitations of conventional laboratory-based monitoring methods. The paper outlines instrument concepts targeting real-time, on-site microplastic pollution assessment to improve the efficiency of marine environmental monitoring.

2025
Article Tier 2

Guidelines for Harmonizing Ocean Surface Microplastic Monitoring Methods. Version 1.1.

This report provides guidelines for harmonizing ocean surface microplastic monitoring methods to allow better comparison of results across different studies. Without standardized approaches, the diversity of sampling and measurement techniques makes it nearly impossible to track global microplastic trends reliably.

2019 IOC of UNESCO (Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission) 31 citations