Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Climate change and microplastics: a two-way interaction

This review characterises the bidirectional relationship between microplastics and climate change: plastics production and degradation generate greenhouse gases, while rising temperatures and changing precipitation alter MP distribution and toxicity in ecosystems. It calls for integrated strategies that address both plastic pollution and climate change.

2025 Emerging Contaminants and Environmental Health 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Research progress on the interaction between climate change and marine microplastic pollution

This review examines the two-way relationship between climate change and marine microplastic pollution, finding that rising ocean temperatures, acidification, and hypoxia can accelerate plastic fragmentation and alter how microplastics are distributed and ingested by marine life. Conversely, microplastics may affect carbon cycling and plankton productivity in ways that feed back into climate dynamics. The findings highlight that microplastic risks cannot be assessed in isolation from the broader context of a changing ocean.

2024 Scientia Sinica Chimica 2 citations
Article Tier 2

The Potential Impact of Climate Change on the Diffusion of Plastic Waste in the Ocean

This study reviewed how climate change directly impacts the marine environment - through rising temperatures, altered ocean circulation, and acidification - in ways that affect the spread of plastic waste. Changes in ocean currents, extreme weather events, and sea level rise were found to redistribute plastic debris and accelerate fragmentation into microplastics.

2024 International Journal of Marine Science 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Impacts of changing ocean circulation on the distribution of marine microplastic litter

Researchers modelled the impact of changing ocean circulation on the distribution of marine microplastics, examining how projected shifts in current patterns may alter the accumulation zones and transport pathways of plastic particles measuring less than 5 mm.

2017 Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management 112 citations
Article Tier 2

Bridging the gap: a review on the interaction between (micro)plastics and climate change

This review examined the two-way relationship between climate change and microplastic pollution. Researchers found that climate-driven changes like rising temperatures, altered weather patterns, and ocean acidification can accelerate microplastic breakdown and redistribute particles across ecosystems, while plastic production and degradation processes themselves contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, creating a reinforcing cycle.

2025 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences 1 citations
Article Tier 2

From pollution to ocean warming: The climate impacts of marine microplastics

This review examined the largely overlooked role of marine microplastics in driving climate change, covering how they disrupt oceanic carbon pumps, alter biogeochemical cycling, and directly emit greenhouse gases during UV degradation. The authors found that microplastics reduce the efficiency of the biological carbon pump by impairing marine organisms that sequester carbon, creating a feedback loop between plastic pollution and ocean warming.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials Plastics
Article Tier 2

Role of Microplastics in Global Warming and Climate Change: A Review

This review examines how microplastics contribute to climate change through multiple pathways, including disrupting ocean carbon capture by phytoplankton, releasing greenhouse gases from soil, and potentially influencing cloud formation in the atmosphere. Researchers found that climate-driven extreme weather events also redistribute microplastics, creating a feedback loop that worsens both problems. The study makes the case that microplastic pollution and climate change should be addressed as interconnected challenges.

2024 Water Air & Soil Pollution 38 citations
Article Tier 2

Plastic pollution amplified by a warming climate

Researchers examined the connection between climate change and plastic pollution, finding that rising temperatures accelerate plastic degradation and microplastic generation, meaning that as the planet warms, the microplastic problem is likely to get worse faster.

2024 Nature Communications 75 citations
Article Tier 2

Climate change and microplastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems: ecological and societal consequences

This review examines how climate change amplifies the ecological and societal impacts of microplastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems. The study suggests that rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and altered precipitation patterns accelerate plastic fragmentation and dispersal, creating compounding effects on water quality, biodiversity, and coastal communities.

2026 Frontiers in Science
Article Tier 2

Fate of microplastics under the influence of climate change

This paper discusses how climate change is reshaping the fate of microplastics in the environment through mechanisms like melting ice releasing stored particles, increased rainfall washing debris into waterways, and stronger winds redistributing contamination. Researchers found that rising temperatures also accelerate the chemical breakdown of microplastics, potentially releasing additional harmful substances. The study frames microplastic pollution within the broader context of planetary boundaries, suggesting the two environmental crises are deeply interconnected.

2023 iScience 139 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and their Impact on the Marine Environment

This review examines how plastic debris in the ocean degrades into microplastics and affects marine ecosystems. The authors discuss how surface plastics reduce heat absorption and how degrading plastics release greenhouse gases, potentially contributing to climate change. The review also highlights the role of ocean plastic in altering marine food webs and threatening biodiversity.

2023 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Emerging Challenges from Plastics-Driven Climate Change

This review examines how the plastic life cycle — from fossil fuel extraction through manufacturing to disposal — generates substantial greenhouse gas emissions, while environmental microplastics disrupt ecosystems and reduce ocean carbon sequestration, creating a bidirectional link between plastic pollution and climate change.

2025 Preprints.org
Article Tier 2

The Contribution of Microplastics to Marine Pollution

This review examines the contribution of microplastics to marine pollution, covering the pathways by which plastic particles enter ocean systems, their distribution across ocean basins, effects on marine life, and the challenges of reducing the flow of plastic into the sea.

2025 International Journal for Research in Applied Science and Engineering Technology
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and Climate Change

This chapter examines the mutually reinforcing relationship between microplastics and climate change, noting that climate change accelerates plastic degradation and dispersal while plastics contribute an estimated 3.3% of global greenhouse gas emissions across their lifecycle. The authors discuss how climate-driven processes alter microplastic fate and transport, and argue that managing both issues requires understanding their complex interdependencies.

2024 Advances in environmental engineering and green technologies book series
Article Tier 2

Navigating the nexus: climate dynamics and microplastics pollution in coastal ecosystems

This review examines how climate change and microplastic pollution interact in coastal ecosystems, finding that rising sea levels, ocean acidification, and stronger storms are spreading microplastics further and faster into marine environments. These climate-driven changes also accelerate plastic breakdown into smaller, more dangerous particles that are more easily absorbed by marine life. The combination of worsening climate conditions and increasing plastic pollution poses a growing threat to both coastal ecosystems and the millions of people who depend on them for food.

2024 Environmental Research 13 citations
Article Tier 2

The Crucial Nexus of Microplastics on Ecosystem and Climate Change: Types, Source, Impacts, and Transport

This review summarizes the current understanding of microplastic types, sources, environmental impacts, and transport pathways across ecosystems. It highlights that microplastics not only harm organisms through ingestion and physical damage but may also influence climate change by affecting soil carbon storage and ocean processes. The review emphasizes that microplastic pollution is a global challenge requiring coordinated solutions across waste management, policy, and consumer behavior.

2024 Water Air & Soil Pollution 18 citations
Article Tier 2

A review of possible pathways of marine microplastics transport in the ocean

This review examines the major pathways by which marine microplastics are transported through the ocean, including surface currents, vertical mixing, biological uptake, and seafloor deposition. Understanding these transport mechanisms is essential for predicting where plastic pollution accumulates and how it affects marine ecosystems.

2020 Anthropocene Coasts 157 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and Climate Change: Analyzing the Environmental Impact and Mitigation Strategies

This review analyzes the relationship between microplastic pollution and climate change, examining how each phenomenon worsens the other and what mitigation strategies might address both simultaneously. The authors find that warming accelerates plastic fragmentation while microplastics contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, calling for integrated environmental policy responses.

2024 IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science
Article Tier 2

Emerging challenges of microplastic impacts to ecological health and climate change

This review examines how microplastics contribute not only to environmental pollution but also to climate change by altering microbial processes, disrupting biogeochemical cycles, and promoting greenhouse gas release. Researchers found that microplastics affect carbon cycling, phytoplankton photosynthesis, and atmospheric processes in ways that may exacerbate global warming. The study highlights significant knowledge gaps in understanding the mechanisms linking microplastic pollution to greenhouse gas emissions.

2025 Marine Pollution Bulletin 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and climate change: the global impacts of a tiny driver

This review explores the connections between microplastic pollution and climate change, two environmental crises that are more intertwined than they might appear. Researchers found that microplastics disrupt ocean carbon sequestration by affecting plankton, may accelerate ice cap melting by reducing surface reflectivity, and can influence greenhouse gas emissions from both water and soil. The study argues that addressing microplastic pollution should be considered an integral part of comprehensive climate change strategies.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 35 citations
Article Tier 2

The behaviors of microplastics in the marine environment

This review synthesized research on the behaviors of microplastics in the marine environment — including transport, weathering, biofouling, ingestion, and chemical interactions — to characterize their full environmental lifecycle.

2015 Marine Environmental Research 810 citations
Article Tier 2

The problem of Microplastic Accumulation in the Arctic Ocean

This review highlights the emerging threat of microplastic accumulation in the rapidly warming Arctic Ocean, documenting MP presence in seawater, sediments, sea ice, and marine organisms and identifying the Arctic as a convergence zone for plastic pollution transported by ocean currents.

2021 7 citations
Review Tier 2

Climate Change and Plastic Pollution: A Review of Their Connections

This review explores the interconnections between climate change and plastic pollution, showing that the two crises influence each other through mechanisms including plastic production from fossil fuels, photodegradation of plastics accelerated by warming, and microplastics affecting atmospheric processes.

2023 Tropical Environment Biology and Technology 27 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic and nanoplastic pollution: Assessing translocation, impact, and mitigation strategies in marine ecosystems

This review examines how microplastics and nanoplastics move through marine ecosystems, contaminating species from tiny plankton to large fish through processes like biofouling and chemical leaching. The plastics interact with other environmental stressors like climate change and chemical pollution, compounding their effects on marine food webs. The authors highlight that nanoplastics, which form as microplastics break down further, may pose additional unique risks that are not yet well understood.

2025 Water Environment Research 20 citations