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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Microplastics as vectors of chemical contaminants and biological agents in freshwater ecosystems: Current knowledge status and future perspectives
ClearMicroplastics as vectors of contaminants
This review highlights the emerging role of microplastics as carriers of biological and chemical contaminants in water environments. Researchers note that while microplastic pollution is increasingly well-documented, the interactions between contaminants adsorbed onto microplastic surfaces and aquatic organisms remain poorly understood. The study stresses the need for further investigation into how microplastics may facilitate the transport and bioavailability of pollutants.
Interactions of microplastics with contaminants in freshwater systems: a review of characteristics, bioaccessibility, and environmental factors affecting sorption
This review examined how microplastics act as vectors for environmental contaminants in freshwater systems, analyzing the characteristics, bioaccessibility, and environmental factors that influence pollutant sorption onto plastic particles and their potential transfer to organisms including humans.
Microplastics as a vehicle of exposure to chemical contamination in freshwater systems: Current research status and way forward
This review assessed the current state of research on microplastics as vectors for chemical contaminants in freshwater systems, evaluating evidence for and against the vector hypothesis and identifying the most important knowledge gaps, including the need for studies at environmentally realistic concentrations.
Source, transport, and toxicity of emerging contaminants in aquatic environments: A review on recent studies
This review examines emerging contaminants in water, with a focus on how microplastics act as carriers for other pollutants due to their strong ability to absorb chemicals. When microplastics carry these hitchhiking pollutants, the combined effect on aquatic organisms can be amplified thousands of times as they move up the food chain. The findings highlight how microplastic pollution does not just add plastic to the environment but also concentrates and transports other harmful chemicals toward humans.
Distribution, biological effects and biofilms of microplastics in freshwater systems - A review
This review examines microplastic distribution, biological effects, and biofilm formation in freshwater systems, highlighting knowledge gaps compared to marine studies and the ecological risks posed by microplastics as vectors for pathogens and pollutants.
Micro(nano)plastics: Unignorable vectors for organisms
This review examines the role of micro- and nanoplastics as vectors for contaminants — including heavy metals, organic pollutants, and pathogens — in aquatic and terrestrial environments. It synthesizes evidence on how plastic particles can adsorb, transport, and release harmful substances, amplifying their ecological and health risks beyond the physical effects of the particles alone.
Biofilm-Developed Microplastics As Vectors of Pollutants in Aquatic Environments
This review examines how biofilms that form on microplastics in aquatic environments change their ability to absorb and transport pollutants. Researchers found that biofilm-coated microplastics can absorb more contaminants than clean microplastics and serve as vectors that transfer both pollutants and potentially harmful microorganisms through aquatic ecosystems.
Microplastics (MPs) Act as Sources and Vector of Pollutants‐Impact Hazards and Preventive Measures
This review explores how microplastics can act both as sources of chemical substances and as carriers for other environmental pollutants. Researchers found that regardless of which role microplastics play, the combined presence of plastic particles and attached chemical substances can have harmful effects on biological systems, though more experimental research is needed to fully understand these interactions.
Microplastics as Vectors of Chemicals and Microorganisms in the Environment
This review examines microplastics as vectors for chemicals and microorganisms in the environment, discussing the 'plastisphere' concept, hydrophobic surface interactions that facilitate pollutant adsorption, biofilm formation, and the mechanisms by which microplastics transport contaminants and pathogens through aquatic systems.
Occurrence and Fate of Emerging Contaminants with Microplastics Current Scenario, Sources and Effects
This review chapter covers the current state of microplastic contamination across marine and terrestrial environments, explaining how microplastics act as vectors for other pollutants — including pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and heavy metals — that accumulate on their surfaces. These contaminant-laden particles are consumed by marine organisms and travel up the food chain, reaching human food sources. The work underscores that microplastics are not just a physical hazard but also a chemical delivery system that amplifies the toxic burden on ecosystems and people.
Microplastics in Surface Waters: A Critical Review of Emerging Challenges and Future Perspectives
This review examines microplastic contamination across aquatic environments, covering detection technologies, ecological risks from ingestion by wildlife and transfer through food webs, and how microplastics serve as vectors for pesticides, heavy metals, and chemical pollutants.
Fate of microplastics and emerging contaminants: Mechanisms of interactions, bioaccumulation and combined toxicity to aquatic organisms
This review summarizes how microplastics interact with other emerging contaminants in water, finding that microplastics can absorb pollutants at concentrations up to a million times higher than surrounding water and carry them into living organisms. The combined toxicity of microplastics plus these hitchhiking chemicals is often greater than either alone, and these pollutants can reach humans through the food chain.
Do microplastics mediate the effects of chemicals on aquatic organisms?
This review examined whether microplastics act as vectors for chemical contaminants in aquatic organisms, finding that while chemicals can sorb to microplastics, the evidence for microplastics significantly enhancing chemical toxicity in natural settings remains limited.
Microplastics: A Potential Vector for Pathogens in Aquatic Ecosystems
This review examines the evidence that microplastics act as vectors for pathogens in aquatic environments, summarizing how the large surface area and persistence of microplastics promote pathogen adhesion, biofilm formation, and transport of harmful microorganisms.
Microplastics in the environment: A critical overview on its fate, toxicity, implications, management, and bioremediation strategies
This review provides a broad overview of microplastic pollution, covering how these particles enter freshwater systems, accumulate in organisms, and carry toxic chemicals through the food chain. With approximately 360 million tons of plastic produced globally each year and only 7% recycled, microplastics have become a pervasive threat to water quality and, by extension, human health.
Environmental Impact of Microplastics in Aquatic Ecosystems: A Review of Current Research and Future Directions
This review examines microplastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems, covering chemical, biological, and ecological processes beyond simple physical contamination and identifying priority areas for future research directions.
Microplastics in freshwater ecosystems: what we know and what we need to know
This review examines the state of knowledge on microplastic contamination in freshwater ecosystems, which have received far less scientific attention than marine environments despite being major pathways for plastic transport. Researchers found that freshwater microplastic concentrations can be extremely high near urban areas and that organisms from insects to fish readily ingest these particles. The study identifies key research gaps including the need for standardized detection methods and better understanding of how microplastics move through and affect freshwater food webs.
Exaggerated interaction of biofilm-developed microplastics and contaminants in aquatic environments
Researchers found that biofilm formation on microplastic surfaces exaggerates the adsorption and vector capacity for co-contaminants in aquatic environments, with biofilm-coated MPs showing substantially higher uptake of contaminants than pristine MPs.
Microplastics as vectors of environmental contaminants: Interactions in the natural ecosystems
This review examines how microplastics act as vectors for pathogens, persistent organic pollutants, and heavy metals in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems, summarising evidence that these particles damage cell membranes, tissues, and physiological processes in exposed organisms.
Pathogens transported by plastic debris: does this vector pose a risk to aquatic organisms?
This review examined whether microplastics act as vectors for pathogenic bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens in marine and freshwater ecosystems. Evidence indicates that diverse microorganisms including pathogens adhere to microplastic surfaces, and modeling suggested potential for long-range pathogen transport, though the scale of ecological and public health risk remains uncertain.
Microplastics as vectors of other contaminants: Analytical determination techniques and remediation methods
This review examines how microplastics act as carriers for other pollutants, absorbing harmful organic and inorganic chemicals from the environment. It covers the latest methods for detecting and identifying microplastics in different settings, as well as promising cleanup approaches like microbial degradation. The findings underscore that microplastics may be more dangerous than the plastic itself because of the toxic hitchhikers they carry into the food chain and water supply.
From Origins to Impacts: A Comprehensive Review of Microplastics in Freshwater Environments
This comprehensive review covers microplastics in freshwater ecosystems from sources and transport to biological uptake and food web effects, synthesizing current evidence on ecological risks and identifying research priorities.
Co-occurrence of microplastics and organic/inorganic contaminants in organisms living in aquatic ecosystems: A review
This review examines studies that measured both microplastics and chemical pollutants (organic and inorganic) in aquatic organisms at the same time. A positive correlation was found between microplastic levels and certain pollutants in organisms, suggesting microplastics may help transport contaminants into living things. The findings raise concerns that seafood contaminated with microplastics could also carry higher levels of toxic chemicals into the human diet.
Partitioning of chemical contaminants to microplastics: Sorption mechanisms, environmental distribution and effects on toxicity and bioaccumulation
This review critically examines how chemical contaminants like persistent organic pollutants and heavy metals sorb onto microplastic surfaces in the environment. Researchers found that while microplastics can concentrate pollutants at levels far above surrounding water, the actual contribution of microplastics to contaminant transfer into organisms may be less significant than direct exposure from water and food. The study calls for more realistic experimental designs to clarify the true risk.