Papers

61,005 results
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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

Distribution and importance of microplastics in the marine environment: A review of the sources, fate, effects, and potential solutions

This review synthesized research on the distribution and significance of microplastics across the marine environment, covering sources, transport pathways, ecological interactions, and the state of knowledge on biological and chemical effects.

2017 Environment International 2517 citations
Article Tier 2

Environmental source, fate, and toxicity of microplastics

This comprehensive review covers the sources, environmental fate, and toxic effects of microplastics across both aquatic and terrestrial environments. The study highlights that microplastics are now found virtually everywhere on Earth and can harm organisms through physical damage, chemical leaching, and by acting as carriers for other pollutants.

2020 Journal of Hazardous Materials 982 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 as Emerging Environmental Contaminants: Sources, Distribution and Ecological Implications

This review examines the sources, environmental distribution, and ecological implications of microplastics, which are now found across aquatic, terrestrial, and atmospheric environments worldwide. The study discusses how these persistent plastic fragments can enter food webs and highlights priorities for future monitoring, risk assessment, and pollution mitigation efforts.

2026 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Review Tier 2

Micro(nano)plastics in the total environment – A holistic review

This comprehensive review examined how micro- and nanoplastics are distributed across soil, water, air, sediments, and living organisms worldwide. Researchers highlighted that while plastic particles accumulate extensively throughout the environment, the long-term transport, fate, and health impacts of this pollution remain poorly understood. The study calls for more standardized research methods and coordinated global efforts to address the growing challenge of plastic particle contamination.

2025 The Science of The Total Environment 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Research progress on the sources and toxicology of micro (nano) plastics in environment

This review covers sources, distribution, and toxicity of micro- and nanoplastics across soil, water, and air, including effects on organisms and human health. It provides a comprehensive overview of the state of knowledge on environmental microplastic contamination and its consequences.

2018 8 citations
Article Tier 2

A critical review on occurrence, distribution, environmental impacts and biodegradation of microplastics

This review provides a broad overview of microplastic pollution, covering where these particles come from, how they spread through terrestrial and aquatic environments, and their effects on ecosystems. Researchers found that microplastics are now present in virtually every environment studied worldwide, from deep oceans to mountain soils. The study highlights biodegradation by microorganisms as a promising but still underdeveloped approach for addressing microplastic contamination.

2023 Journal of Environmental Biology 21 citations
Article Tier 2

Source and Route of Microplastics in Terrestrial, Atmospheric, and Aquatic Environments, and Effects of Microplastics on Organisms

This review summarizes the sources, transport routes, and ecological effects of microplastics across terrestrial, atmospheric, and aquatic environments, highlighting how trophic transfer through food chains can ultimately lead to human ingestion.

2022 Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic migration and distribution in the terrestrial and aquatic environments: A threat to biotic safety

This review summarizes how microplastics move through and accumulate in both land and water environments worldwide. Microplastics have been found in nearly every environment on Earth, and they can enter microorganisms, plants, animals, and humans through multiple pathways. The review highlights that despite growing evidence of widespread contamination, researchers still do not fully understand how microplastics of different sizes and shapes migrate and what biological damage they cause.

2023 Journal of Environmental Management 79 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic Pollution in the Environment

This review examines the ubiquitous presence of microplastics as emerging environmental pollutants across all major environmental compartments, synthesizing data on their sources, fates, and concentrations over time and space to characterize the scale of global contamination.

2025
Article Tier 2

Research Progress of Microplastics

This review summarizes research progress on microplastics, covering their sources, distribution across environmental compartments, detection methods, and ecotoxicological effects on organisms. The authors highlight key knowledge gaps including the long-term fate of small microplastics and nanoplastics in terrestrial and aquatic systems.

2024 Engineering and Technology Journal 1 citations
Article Tier 2

A review of microplastics in the aquatic environmental: distribution, transport, ecotoxicology, and toxicological mechanisms

This review examines how microplastics are distributed, transported, and accumulate throughout aquatic environments, and the toxicological effects they have on aquatic organisms. The study suggests that microplastics can affect human health through the food chain, but notes that understanding of combined toxicity mechanisms remains very limited. The authors identify significant knowledge gaps and call for more systematic environmental risk assessments across multiple species.

2020 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 153 citations
Review Tier 2

Microplastics in water systems: A review of their impacts on the environment and their potential hazards

This review examines how microplastics spread through seawater, freshwater, and wastewater systems, summarizing their abundance, distribution patterns, and the environmental factors that control their movement. The paper highlights that aging microplastics become more effective at absorbing other pollutants, which increases their potential hazard when they enter drinking water sources or are consumed by organisms in the food chain.

2023 Heliyon 308 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in the environment: Recent developments in characteristic, occurrence, identification and ecological risk

This review provides a comprehensive overview of microplastic pollution across oceans, freshwater, soil, and the atmosphere, examining their sources, movement patterns, and ecological risks. Researchers found that while coastal environments have been well studied, much less is known about microplastic contamination in terrestrial ecosystems. The study synthesizes data on microplastic toxicity, bioaccumulation in organisms, and environmental fate to support better risk assessment.

2022 Chemosphere 115 citations
Review Tier 2

Microplastics as contaminants in the marine environment: A review

This review synthesized the state of knowledge on microplastics as marine contaminants, covering their sources, pathways, distribution, biological uptake, and potential ecological and toxicological effects.

2011 Marine Pollution Bulletin 5709 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics Formation, Distribution, Impact, and Mitigation Strategy: A Review

This review covers the formation, environmental distribution, ecological impacts, and mitigation strategies for microplastics, synthesizing the global evidence base on how microplastic pollution spreads through air, water, and soil and harms living organisms.

2025 SEAS (Sustainable Environment Agricultural Science)
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
Article Tier 2

Microplastic: A Silent Contaminant in Aquatic Ecosystems and Its Ecological Consequences

This review examines microplastics as a pervasive but underappreciated contaminant in aquatic ecosystems, synthesizing evidence on their sources, distribution, uptake pathways in aquatic organisms, and broader ecological consequences for freshwater and marine food webs.

2025 International Journal of Science Architecture Technology and Environment
Article Tier 2

Microplastics: An Overview of Sources, Distribution, and Removal Methods

This review identifies primary and secondary sources of microplastics, outlines their distribution pathways across aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and evaluates physical, chemical, and biological removal methods, noting that their small size, persistence, and ability to transport endocrine-disrupting chemicals and heavy metals amplify their ecological impact.

2025 Black Sea Journal of Engineering and Science
Article Tier 2

Comprehensive investigation on microplastics from source to sink

This review paper traces microplastic pollution from where it originates to where it ends up, covering sources, detection methods, and effects on soil and water environments. It highlights major gaps in our understanding, especially around microplastics in soil compared to water, and the lack of standardized ways to measure them. The review emphasizes that microplastics are everywhere in our environment and calls for better research tools and coordinated global efforts.

2024 Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy 22 citations
Article Tier 2

A Review of Microplastic Pollution: Harmful Effect on Environment and Animals, Remediation Strategies

This review provides a broad overview of microplastic pollution, covering its sources, environmental distribution, and harmful effects on wildlife and ecosystems. Researchers summarize current knowledge about how microplastics enter food chains and interact with other pollutants. The study also evaluates existing cleanup and remediation strategies for addressing microplastic contamination across different environments.

2023 Journal of Ecological Engineering 16 citations
Article Tier 2

The Environmental Fate of Microplastics

This review examines the environmental fate of microplastics as a class of micropollutants, tracing how they enter soils, lakes, oceans, and rivers and how their persistence makes them particularly difficult to address.

2024 Microplastics
Systematic Review Tier 1

A systematic review: Biodegradation, mechanism, remediation strategies, and environmental impacts of microplastics

This systematic review summarizes research on how microplastics break down in the environment and what strategies exist to clean them up. The findings highlight that microplastics are extremely difficult to degrade naturally, meaning they persist in soil and water for long periods where they can eventually enter our food and drinking water.

2024 Asia-Pacific Journal of Chemical Engineering 4 citations