Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Microplastics in aquatic ecosystems: Detection, source tracing, and sustainable management strategies

This review paper summarizes what we know about microplastics in water environments, including how they spread, how to detect them, and how to manage the problem. It highlights that microplastics can carry toxic substances and calls for stronger global policies and new cleanup methods like biodegradation to protect ecosystems and human health.

2025 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 15 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in aquatic environment: Challenges and perspectives

This review provides a comprehensive overview of microplastic pollution in water environments, covering sources, transport, health effects, detection methods, and control strategies. Microplastics enter waterways from everyday plastic products, industrial discharge, and wastewater treatment plants, where aquatic organisms ingest them and pass them up the food chain. The review highlights the urgent need for better analytical techniques and global policies to reduce microplastic contamination that ultimately reaches human food and drinking water.

2021 Chemosphere 298 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics influencing aquatic environment and human health: A review of source, determination, distribution, removal, degradation, management strategy and future perspective

This review paper provides a broad summary of microplastic pollution in water environments, covering where they come from, how to detect them, how they spread, and how to remove them. The authors emphasize that microplastics persist for extremely long periods in water and can harm both aquatic life and human health, calling for better management strategies worldwide.

2025 Journal of Environmental Management 17 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in the Aquatic Environment: Occurrence, Persistence, Analysis, and Human Exposure

This review synthesizes global research on microplastic occurrence in aquatic environments, from rivers and lakes to wastewater and seafood, and examines how these particles eventually reach humans. Researchers found that microplastics are now ubiquitous in freshwater and marine systems, with trophic transfer and biomagnification serving as key routes of human exposure. The study highlights the need for standardized sampling and analysis methods to enable better comparison across studies and more accurate risk assessment.

2021 Water 104 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in water: occurrence, detection, and impacts – a comprehensive review of multiple studies

This comprehensive review synthesized current knowledge on microplastic occurrence, detection methods, and impacts across marine, freshwater, and remote aquatic ecosystems. Researchers highlighted that microplastic concentrations are particularly high in urban rivers, transported through runoff, atmospheric deposition, and river input. The review identifies critical research gaps including the need for standardized detection methods and more studies on chronic human exposure through contaminated seafood and drinking water.

2026 Water Practice & Technology
Systematic Review Tier 1

Microplastic contamination, an emerging threat to the freshwater environment: a systematic review

Researchers systematically reviewed the spread of microplastics in freshwater ecosystems — rivers, lakes, and streams — documenting their sources, how they move through water, the damage they cause to aquatic organisms, and the methods used to detect them. Their review serves as a baseline reference for future research and calls for improved waste management to protect freshwater environments from ongoing microplastic contamination.

2024 ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS RESEARCH 98 citations
Article Tier 2

Micro-plastics in Aquatic Environment: Source, Fate, Emerging Threats, and Regulatory Effort

This review covers sources, distribution, and threats of microplastics in aquatic environments, tracing their movement through rivers, estuaries, lakes, and oceans and their accumulation in sediments and the food chain. The paper also reviews emerging policy frameworks aimed at reducing plastic pollution, providing a broad overview of the microplastic problem in water systems.

2023 International Journal of Environment and Climate Change 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in Aquatic Environments

This review examined microplastics as ubiquitous pollutants in aquatic environments, tracing their origins in large-scale plastic production and inadequate waste management systems and synthesizing evidence on their distribution, ecological impacts, and implications for global water quality.

2022 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in Aquatic Ecosystems: Pathways, Impacts and Integrated Solutions for Environment and Human Health

This review synthesizes current knowledge on microplastic contamination in freshwater and marine ecosystems, covering their sources, environmental behavior, and biological effects. Evidence indicates that microplastics enter waterways through wastewater, runoff, atmospheric deposition, and the breakdown of larger debris, and they accumulate across food webs through ingestion and trophic transfer. The study calls for integrated solutions combining reduced plastic use, advanced filtration, bioremediation, and stronger policy enforcement.

2025 PLANETARY SUSTAINABILITY 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in Aquatic Ecosystems: A Critical Review of Sources, Transport Mechanisms and Ecotoxicological Risks

This review provides a broad overview of microplastic pollution in rivers, oceans, and other aquatic environments, covering where these particles come from, how they move through water systems, and the harm they can cause. Evidence indicates that microplastics accumulate toxins and disrupt growth, feeding, and reproduction in aquatic species, with potential consequences for human health through seafood and drinking water. The authors stress the need for better global monitoring, stronger waste management systems, and development of eco-friendly plastic alternatives.

2025 Asian Journal of Environment & Ecology 2 citations
Article Tier 2

A comprehensive review of urban microplastic pollution sources, environment and human health impacts, and regulatory efforts

This review pulls together research from 2010 to 2024 on how microplastics spread through cities via stormwater runoff, wastewater, and air, contaminating both water and soil. The authors highlight that people in urban areas are exposed to microplastics through ingestion, breathing, and skin contact, and call for stronger regulations and better waste management to protect public health.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 62 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics: Classification, Sources, Characterisation, Fate, and Control Measures

This review examines the classification, sources, characterisation, fate, and control measures for microplastics, synthesising recent literature on their detection in marine water, freshwater, wastewater, food, air, and drinking water, and identifying terrestrial runoff and wastewater effluent as key pollution pathways.

2024 UTTAR PRADESH JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY
Article Tier 2

Microplastic Pollution: Fate, Sources, Transport and Identification

This review summarizes the sources, fate, transport, and identification methods for microplastics in aquatic and terrestrial environments, highlighting their global distribution across all ecosystems and the growing concern for their impacts on marine life, other organisms, and human health.

2023 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics: A Global Water Pollution Problem

This review article summarizes the sources, distribution, and environmental risks of microplastics in global water systems, covering marine environments, freshwater, and the role of textile fibers and tire particles. The paper identifies microplastics as contaminants of emerging concern requiring more research on human health impacts and better removal technologies.

2019 Encyclopedia of Water 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics Pollution in Aquatic Ecosystems: Challenges and Perspectives

A comprehensive review covered the challenges and future directions for addressing microplastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems, synthesizing knowledge on sources, fate, ecological impacts, and removal strategies. The paper provides a roadmap for research and policy priorities to reduce aquatic microplastic contamination.

2025 Environments 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Investigating the Human Impacts and the Environmental Consequences of Microplastics Disposal into Water Resources

This study provides a systematic review of microplastic pollution in water resources, covering detection methods, analytical techniques, environmental depletion patterns, and human health implications, based on a comprehensive literature analysis from the 1970s onward.

2022 Sustainability 24 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in the Aquatic Environment: Overview of the Problem and Current Research Areas

This review summarizes the current state of microplastic research in aquatic environments, covering sources, distribution, ecological impacts, and knowledge gaps. The paper identifies priority research areas needed to better understand and manage microplastic contamination in water bodies.

2023 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic Pollution in Water Systems: Characteristics and Control Methods

This review summarizes research on microplastic pollution in water systems, covering where microplastics come from, how they spread, and their effects on aquatic life and potentially human health. Freshwater in China was found to have higher microplastic levels than other regions, though marine contamination was moderate. The authors suggest that controlling water flow and switching to degradable plastics could significantly reduce microplastic pollution in water.

2024 Diversity 23 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in wastewater: State of the knowledge on sources, fate and solutions

This review synthesizes current knowledge on microplastics in wastewater — their sources, fate through treatment processes, and discharge into the environment — and identifies research priorities and potential solutions. The paper serves as a key reference for understanding how wastewater systems contribute to the global distribution of microplastic pollution.

2018 Marine Pollution Bulletin 381 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

A Review of Sources, Hazards, and Removal Methods of Microplastics in the Environment

This systematic review provides a comprehensive look at where microplastics come from, what risks they pose, and how they can be removed from the environment. The review covers contamination in air, water, and soil, noting that microplastics can carry toxic chemicals and harm both ecosystems and human health.

2025 Water 19 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

Microplastics in the Ecosystem: A Systematic Review of the Methods for Their Detection and Removal

This systematic review summarizes existing research on how microplastics spread through ecosystems and evaluates the methods scientists use to detect and remove them. The findings provide a comprehensive overview of physical and chemical detection techniques, helping advance efforts to clean up microplastic contamination that ultimately affects the water we drink and the food we eat.

2023 International Journal of Ecology 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic Pollution in Fresh Water

This review summarizes current knowledge on microplastic pollution in freshwater systems, covering sources such as atmospheric deposition, stormwater runoff, and wastewater, as well as the diverse shapes, sizes, and polymer types found in rivers and lakes. The authors highlight that freshwater microplastic contamination is comparable in scale to marine contamination and that the pathways to human health via drinking water and food supply demand urgent policy attention.

2023 INTERANTIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT 2 citations
Article Tier 2

A Review of Microplastic Pollution Characteristics in Global Urban Freshwater Catchments

This review synthesizes evidence on microplastic pollution characteristics in urban freshwater catchments worldwide, examining sources, concentrations, and transport pathways from terrestrial to marine environments. Researchers found that human activities are the fundamental driver of microplastic pollution and that freshwater catchments serve as critical conduits for microplastic transfer to oceans.

2022 Advances in human services and public health (AHSPH) book series
Meta Analysis Tier 1

Runoff and discharge pathways of microplastics into freshwater ecosystems: A systematic review and meta-analysis

This meta-analysis examines how microplastics enter freshwater systems through wastewater, stormwater runoff, industrial discharge, and agricultural runoff. Understanding these pathways is essential because freshwater sources provide drinking water, and knowing where microplastics come from helps target efforts to reduce human exposure.

2022 FACETS 37 citations