Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Effects of Microplastics on Reproduction and Growth of Freshwater Live Feeds Daphnia magna

Researchers found that microplastic exposure negatively affected reproduction and juvenile growth in Daphnia magna, a key freshwater zooplankton species, with effects worsening at higher concentrations and posing risks for aquatic food chains.

2022 Fishes 35 citations
Article Tier 2

The effect of microplastics on the speed, mortality rate, and swimming patterns of Daphnia Magna

This study compared how polystyrene and polyethylene microplastics affect the swimming speed, mortality, and movement patterns of Daphnia magna water fleas, finding both plastics caused behavioral changes. Daphnia are key animals in freshwater food webs, and microplastic-induced behavioral impairment could affect their role in aquatic ecosystems.

2021 Journal of Emerging Investigators 2 citations
Article Tier 2

The Effects of Polyethylene and Polypropylene Microplastics on Daphnia dentifera

Researchers examined the effects of polyethylene and polypropylene microplastics on the body size, swim speed, and clonal growth rate of the freshwater crustacean Daphnia dentifera, assessing sublethal physiological and behavioural impacts of two common plastic polymer types.

2025 SPARK Scholarship at Parkland (Parkland College)
Article Tier 2

The Effects of Natural and Anthropogenic Microparticles on Individual Fitness in Daphnia magna

Researchers compared the effects of natural and anthropogenic microparticles on the fitness of the water flea Daphnia magna. The study found that both primary microplastics from cosmetic products and secondary microplastics from degraded plastic waste can have detrimental effects on zooplankton feeding and fitness, with particle shape and weathering influencing toxicity.

2016 PLoS ONE 463 citations
Article Tier 2

Ingestion and impacts of water-borne polypropylene microplastics on Daphnia similis

Researchers found that acute exposure to polypropylene microplastics caused immobility in Daphnia similis, increased reactive oxygen species production, elevated antioxidant enzyme activity, and decreased neurotransmitter function.

2022 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 38 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and movement- exploring behavioural toxicity in Daphnia

Researchers investigated the behavioral toxicity of microplastics on Daphnia, moving beyond standard mortality and immobilization endpoints to capture subtler effects on movement. The study found that microplastic exposure alters locomotion in ways that standard tests would miss.

2024 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Microplastic ingestion by Daphnia magna and its enhancement on algal growth

Researchers examined microplastic ingestion by the freshwater zooplankton Daphnia magna and its downstream effects on algal growth, finding that the organisms readily ingested microparticles. The study also observed that microplastic exposure indirectly enhanced algal growth, possibly by reducing grazing pressure, suggesting that plastic pollution could alter freshwater food web dynamics.

2018 The Science of The Total Environment 398 citations
Article Tier 2

Polystyrene microplastics ingestion induced behavioral effects to the cladoceran Daphnia magna

Researchers exposed the freshwater crustacean Daphnia magna to two sizes of polystyrene microplastics over 21 days and observed changes in feeding, growth, and swimming behavior. They found that both sizes were ingested and affected swimming patterns, with smaller particles causing more pronounced behavioral alterations. The study demonstrates that microplastic exposure at sublethal concentrations can produce significant behavioral effects in freshwater organisms that may affect their ecological fitness.

2019 Chemosphere 178 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of microplastics mixed with natural particles on Daphnia magna populations

Researchers exposed populations of the freshwater organism Daphnia magna to polystyrene microplastics mixed with natural particles over 50 days and found significant population-level declines. Population sizes dropped by 28 to 42 percent compared to controls, with changes in population structure and stress-induced resting egg production. The study demonstrates that microplastics cause harmful effects at the population level, not just in individual organisms.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 18 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and movement- exploring behavioural toxicity in Daphnia

Researchers explored behavioral toxicity endpoints for microplastic exposure in Daphnia, expanding beyond standard lethality and immobilization tests to include movement parameters as sensitive indicators of sublethal effects. Microplastic exposure altered swimming behavior in Daphnia at concentrations that did not cause visible mortality, demonstrating that behavioral assays detect impacts missed by conventional endpoints.

2024 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Significant decline of Daphnia magna population biomass due to microplastic exposure

Stable Daphnia magna populations were exposed to primary microplastics (1–5 μm) at concentrations ranging from 10⁴ to 10⁷ particles/mL for three weeks, resulting in a significant decline in population biomass at higher concentrations. The study demonstrates that population-level endpoints reveal microplastic effects that are missed by single-organism toxicity tests, highlighting the need for realistic long-term exposure experiments.

2019 Environmental Pollution 107 citations
Meta Analysis Tier 1

The effect of microplastics on Daphnia fitness – systematic review and meta-analysis.

This systematic review and meta-analysis examines how micro and nanoplastic particles affect the health and reproduction of Daphnia, a tiny freshwater organism commonly used as an indicator of water quality. The findings matter because Daphnia sit at the base of many aquatic food chains, so harm to these organisms from plastic pollution can ripple upward through ecosystems and ultimately affect the fish and water we depend on.

2023
Review Tier 2

Ecotoxicology of microplastics in Daphnia: A review focusing on microplastic properties and multiscale attributes of Daphnia

This review synthesizes research on how microplastics affect Daphnia, a key organism in aquatic food webs, across individual, population, and community levels. Researchers found that the toxicity of microplastics to Daphnia depends heavily on the physical and chemical properties of the particles, and that combined exposure with other pollutants can produce more severe effects. The study highlights Daphnia as an important indicator species for understanding how microplastic pollution cascades through aquatic ecosystems.

2022 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 71 citations
Article Tier 2

Accumulation, depuration, and potential effects of environmentally representative microplastics towards Daphnia magna

Researchers created environmentally realistic microplastics by grinding common consumer products and tested their effects on Daphnia magna, a small freshwater organism widely used in toxicity studies. The organisms accumulated the microplastics and showed some ability to clear them over time, but the realistic microplastics caused different effects than the pristine laboratory plastics typically used in research. This suggests that many existing studies may underestimate the true environmental risk of microplastics.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 14 citations
Article Tier 2

Selective ingestion and response by Daphnia magna to environmental challenges of microplastics

Researchers used fluorescent microplastics labeled with aggregation-induced emission markers to investigate how Daphnia magna selectively ingests different types of plastic particles, finding that particle type, size, and surface chemistry influence ingestion patterns and toxicological response.

2023 Journal of Hazardous Materials 27 citations
Article Tier 2

Mediated food and hydrodynamics on the ingestion of microplastics by Daphnia magna

This study investigated how food availability and water flow affect microplastic ingestion by Daphnia magna, finding that hydrodynamic conditions and food presence significantly influenced the rate at which these zooplankton took up microplastic particles.

2019 Environmental Pollution 35 citations
Article Tier 2

Beyond microplastics: Water soluble synthetic polymers exert sublethal adverse effects in the freshwater cladoceran Daphnia magna

Researchers found that water-soluble synthetic polymers, an overlooked category of plastic pollution, caused sublethal adverse effects in Daphnia magna including reduced reproduction and feeding rates, highlighting a previously unrecognized environmental risk beyond conventional microplastics.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 35 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of microplastics on key reproductive and biochemical endpoints of the freshwater microcrustacean Daphnia magna

Researchers studied how microplastics affect reproduction and biochemistry in the freshwater water flea Daphnia magna, a widely used indicator species. They found that microplastic exposure led to changes in reproductive output and altered key biochemical markers in these small crustaceans. The study suggests that even tiny plastic particles can disrupt important biological functions in freshwater organisms that form the base of aquatic food webs.

2024 Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part C Toxicology & Pharmacology 5 citations
Meta Analysis Tier 1

The effect of microplastics on Daphnia fitness – systematic review and meta-analysis.

This meta-analysis pools data from multiple studies to assess how micro and nanoplastic exposure affects Daphnia, a key freshwater organism used to gauge water health. The evidence shows that plastic particles can harm Daphnia reproduction, which is important because these organisms are a foundational part of freshwater food webs that ultimately connect to human food and water sources.

2023 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

Effects of Microplastics on Aquatic Animals: A Case Study on Daphnia

Researchers exposed Daphnia water fleas to ten types of virgin plastic materials (HDPE, LDPE, PA, PVC, PP, PS, TPU, etc.) and measured survival, reproduction, and behavioral endpoints, finding that PVC and certain engineering plastics caused the greatest acute toxicity while softer polyolefins had lower effects.

2025 Journal of Natural Science Review
Article Tier 2

Ingestion of micro- and nanoplastics in Daphnia magna – Quantification of body burdens and assessment of feeding rates and reproduction

Researchers used a quantitative approach to measure how the water flea Daphnia magna ingests and excretes micro- and nanoplastic particles of different sizes. They found that larger 2-micrometer particles were ingested in greater mass than 100-nanometer particles, and that complete excretion did not occur within 24 hours. Chronic exposure reduced feeding rates and reproduction, suggesting that ongoing microplastic exposure could have meaningful ecological consequences for these important freshwater organisms.

2017 Environmental Pollution 536 citations
Article Tier 2

Alteration to organismal behavior due to microplastic exposure

Researchers investigated how the presence of microplastics influenced the behavior of water fleas (Daphnia magna) and two fish species in controlled laboratory settings. The study found that microplastics attracted water fleas and decreased their mobility, while both fish species changed their positioning in the water column in response, suggesting that microplastic pollution could alter the communal distribution and interactions of aquatic organisms in natural ecosystems.

2025 Environmental Research 1 citations
Article Tier 2

A fit-for-purpose categorization scheme for microplastic morphologies

Researchers studied the long-term effects of polypropylene microplastic exposure on the life history traits of the water flea Daphnia magna across three generations, finding progressively increasing reproductive impairment and reduced survival in successive generations. The multigenerational impacts exceeded those observed in single-generation tests.

2022 Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management 18 citations
Meta Analysis Tier 1

The complexity of micro- and nanoplastic research in the genus Daphnia – A systematic review of study variability and a meta-analysis of immobilization rates

This meta-analysis examines how micro- and nanoplastics affect Daphnia, a tiny water creature widely used to test the toxicity of pollutants. The research found that plastics can harm Daphnia survival and reproduction, which matters because these organisms are at the base of freshwater food chains that ultimately connect to human water and food sources.

2023 Journal of Hazardous Materials 20 citations