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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Impacts of Microplastics on Zooplankton
ClearThe Impacts of Microplastics on Zooplankton
This review examines the growing concern about microplastic impacts on marine and freshwater zooplankton, noting that these tiny organisms can ingest microplastics and are at the base of most aquatic food webs. Plastic ingestion can cause gut blockages, immune responses, energy loss, and reduced reproduction, with potential cascading effects on ecosystems and the species—including fish and humans—that feed on zooplankton.
Bioavailability and effects of microplastics on marine zooplankton: A review
This review synthesized laboratory and field evidence on microplastic bioavailability and effects on marine zooplankton, finding that multiple taxa readily ingest microplastics with negative impacts on feeding, reproduction, and energy balance, and that zooplankton represent a critical route for transferring microplastics into marine food webs. The authors identify particle size, concentration, and feeding behavior as the main determinants of microplastic bioavailability to zooplankton.
The characteristics of plastic nanoparticles and their effect on zooplankton
This thesis reviewed the characteristics of plastic nanoparticles and their potential effects on zooplankton, which are a foundational component of aquatic food webs. Because nanoplastics are smaller than microplastics, they are more easily taken up by tiny organisms and may have more pervasive ecological effects.
Impacts of Environmental Change and Microplastic Pollution on Zooplankton
This review examined how environmental changes including warming, ocean acidification, and microplastic pollution are affecting zooplankton communities, covering effects on physiology, behavior, reproduction, and population dynamics. Combined stressors were found to have greater impacts than any single factor.
Effect of Microplastics on Aquatic Food Chain and Food Web Altering Phytoplankton Community Structure
This review examines how microplastics affect phytoplankton community structure and how these effects propagate through aquatic food chains and food webs, with implications for nutrient cycling and ecosystem services.
Freshwater Lacustrine Zooplankton and Microplastic: An Issue to Be Still Explored
This review examined the interactions between freshwater lacustrine zooplankton and microplastics, highlighting how microplastic ingestion affects planktonic organisms that form the base of lake food webs. The authors call for more research on lake-specific microplastic dynamics.
Microplastic Ingestion by Zooplankton
This study examined whether tiny marine animals called zooplankton can ingest microplastics, and researchers found that thirteen different zooplankton species consumed plastic beads of various sizes. The plastics also stuck to the animals' outer shells and significantly reduced their normal feeding on algae, suggesting that microplastic pollution could disrupt the base of the marine food web.
Microplastics impact simple aquatic food web dynamics through reduced zooplankton feeding and potentially releasing algae from consumer control
Researchers investigated how environmentally relevant concentrations of microplastics affect freshwater food web dynamics using two zooplankton species. The study found that microplastic exposure reduced zooplankton feeding rates, which could potentially release algae from consumer control and disrupt aquatic food chain balance.
Chapter 7 Review: Effects of Microplastic on Zooplankton Survival and Sublethal Responses
This review synthesizes findings from 88 studies on how microplastics affect the survival, growth, reproduction, and behavior of zooplankton — tiny animals that form a critical link in aquatic food chains. Evidence consistently shows that microplastics can reduce survival and reproductive success across multiple zooplankton groups at environmentally relevant concentrations.
Life in the Balance: Zooplankton’s Battle in a Changing Environment
This review highlights zooplankton as critical but often overlooked components of marine and freshwater ecosystems, examining how they are threatened by stressors including climate change, pollution, and microplastic ingestion.
Review: Effects of microplastic on zooplankton survival and sublethal responses
This review synthesised 88 published studies to examine the effects of microplastics on zooplankton survival and sublethal responses including growth, development, feeding rate, reproduction, organ damage, and gene expression. Daphnids and copepods were identified as the most sensitive groups, with feeding rate and fecundity significantly decreased at environmentally relevant microplastic concentrations.
Does microplastic ingestion by zooplankton affect predator-prey interactions? An experimental study on larviphagy
Filter feeders consumed significantly fewer zooplankton prey that had ingested microplastics compared to uncontaminated prey, suggesting that microplastic ingestion makes zooplankton less appealing or nutritious. This effect on predation could have cascading consequences for marine food webs.
Research highlights: impacts of microplastics on plankton
This research highlights piece summarizes emerging evidence for the impacts of microplastics on marine plankton — the base of ocean food webs — including effects on feeding, reproduction, and population dynamics. The findings underscore that microplastic pollution has the potential to disrupt marine ecosystems from the bottom up.
Toxicity effects and mechanism of micro/nanoplastics and loaded conventional pollutants on zooplankton: An overview
This review summarizes how microplastics and nanoplastics harm zooplankton, the tiny animals at the base of aquatic food chains, through physical blockage, oxidative stress, gene disruption, and reproductive damage. The effects are worse when microplastics carry other pollutants like heavy metals or pesticides on their surfaces. Since zooplankton are eaten by fish that humans consume, damage to these organisms can transfer microplastic contamination up the food chain to people.
Modeling the Impact of Microplastics on Metabolic Rates andMortality of Zooplankton
Researchers developed a mathematical model to predict how microplastic exposure affects the metabolism and survival rates of zooplankton, the tiny animals that form the base of aquatic food chains. Understanding these effects is important because changes to zooplankton populations ripple upward through ecosystems to fish and the species that eat them.
Is Zooplankton an Entry Point of Microplastics into the Marine Food Web?
Researchers investigated microplastic ingestion by zooplankton in natural marine environments, examining whether copepods and other zooplankton serve as an entry point for transferring microplastics from the water column into the marine food web.
Microplastics and the freshwater plankton: Effects on grazing and mortality
This study exposed natural freshwater zooplankton communities to polyethylene microplastics of different sizes and found that the smallest particles (1-5 micrometers) were ingested most frequently, leading to reduced feeding on algae and increased mortality. When zooplankton ate microplastics instead of food, algae populations grew unchecked, disrupting the natural balance of the ecosystem. Since zooplankton are a key food source for fish, this disruption could ripple through the food chain and affect the quality of freshwater fish consumed by humans.
Ingestion of Microplastics by Zooplankton in the Northeast Pacific Ocean
Researchers collected zooplankton from the northeast Pacific Ocean and found microplastics ingested by multiple species, demonstrating that microplastic uptake occurs throughout the open ocean zooplankton community far from coastlines.
Zooplankton responses to environmentally relevant microplastic conditions at low food availability
Researchers exposed marine zooplankton to environmentally relevant concentrations of microplastics under realistic low-exposure conditions, measuring effects on feeding, reproduction, and survival over multiple generations. Even at low concentrations, chronic microplastic exposure reduced zooplankton fitness.
Ecological impact of microplastic pollution on marine food webs
This review examines how microplastic pollution disrupts marine food webs, tracing the transfer of plastic particles and associated chemicals from plankton through fish to top predators and analyzing the ecological consequences for marine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.
Microplastics: Potential impacts on aquatic biodiversity
This review examined microplastic impacts on aquatic biodiversity, finding that MPs affect organisms across trophic levels through ingestion, entanglement, and chemical leaching, with potential consequences for population dynamics and ecosystem functioning.
Ecotoxicological effects of traditional and emerging microplastics on marine zooplankton: A review
Researchers reviewed how microplastics harm marine zooplankton (tiny animals that form a critical link in ocean food chains) at the molecular level, covering effects like metabolic disruption, oxidative stress, immune damage, and neurotoxicity — and extended the review to include emerging plastics like tire-wear particles and antifouling paint particles that are often overlooked. The review calls for moving beyond treating all microplastics as identical, since their varying physical and chemical properties produce very different toxic effects.
Impact of microplastics on macrozoobenthos
This review examines the impacts of microplastics on macrozoobenthos communities in aquatic ecosystems, detailing documented effects including digestive tract damage, reduced growth, morphological deformities, tissue necrosis, and increased mortality rates. The study also addresses how bioaccumulation of microplastics through trophic levels amplifies harm to higher-order organisms, including humans.
An assessment of the ecosystem services of marine zooplankton and the key threats to their provision
Researchers conducted the first comprehensive assessment of the ecosystem services that marine zooplankton provide, including supporting fisheries, carbon cycling, and nutrient transport. They found that stressors such as microplastic pollution, climate change, and overfishing could significantly reduce these services, with downstream effects on food security and human well-being. The study highlights that protecting zooplankton populations is essential for maintaining the broader benefits that healthy oceans provide to society.