Papers

61,005 results
|
Article Tier 2

Less impact than suspected: Dietary exposure of three-spined sticklebacks to microplastic fibers does not affect their body condition and immune parameters

Researchers found that dietary exposure to polyester microplastic fibers at environmentally relevant and elevated concentrations had no significant effects on growth, body condition, or immune parameters of three-spined sticklebacks over nine weeks.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 20 citations
Article Tier 2

Developmental Polyethylene Microplastic Fiber Exposure Entails Subtle Reproductive Impacts in Juvenile Japanese Medaka (Oryzias latipes)

Japanese medaka fish exposed to environmentally relevant levels of polyethylene microplastic fibers throughout development showed subtle but measurable reproductive impacts including alterations in gonadal development. The findings suggest that chronic low-dose microplastic fiber exposure during early life may impair future reproductive capacity in fish.

2022 Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 18 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of different types of primary microplastics on early life stages of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

Researchers examined the effects of polystyrene, PET, and polyethylene microplastics on rainbow trout early life stages over 69 days, finding elevated stress hormones and DNA damage despite no significant changes in hatching success or larval survival.

2021 The Science of The Total Environment 36 citations
Article Tier 2

Short-term microplastic exposure fails to affect swimming endurance or body condition in juvenile golden shiners Notemigonus crysoleucas

A 15-day experiment exposing juvenile golden shiners to nylon fibers, PET fragments, polypropylene fibers, and polystyrene spheres found no significant effects on swimming endurance or body condition, suggesting short-term microplastic exposure may not impair locomotor performance in this freshwater fish species.

2025 Canadian Journal of Zoology
Article Tier 2

Primary and secondary microplastics do not affect hatching of Japanese flounder eggs

Researchers investigated the effects of primary polystyrene microbeads (3 and 10 micrometers) and secondary microplastics derived from coastal debris on the hatching rates of Japanese flounder eggs, finding that neither primary nor secondary microplastics affected hatching success, suggesting limited impact during this brief early developmental stage.

2025
Article Tier 2

Microplastic vector effects: are fish at risk when exposed via the trophic chain?

Researchers exposed three-spined sticklebacks to polyethylene microplastics via food chain transfer (prey ingestion) for one month and measured biochemical and molecular effects. While the microplastics were transferred through the trophic chain, chemical toxicity was not amplified, suggesting that trophic transfer alone may not substantially increase the chemical risk from microplastics in this species.

2019 4 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of a microplastic exposure gradient on juvenile lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush)

Researchers exposed newly hatched lake trout for 12 weeks to three types of microplastics, polyethylene, polystyrene, and polyethylene terephthalate, at a gradient of concentrations to assess effects on early life stages of this important sportfish. Microplastic exposure caused growth and developmental effects in juvenile lake trout, with responses varying by polymer type and concentration.

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

Assessing the Biological Effects of Exposure to Microplastics in the Three-Spined Stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) (Linnaeus 1758)

This thesis assessed the biological effects of microplastic ingestion in three-spined stickleback fish, documenting ingestion, retention, and excretion of different microplastic types and sizes across life stages. The study found that trophic transfer is an additional route for fish to ingest microplastics, and that larger particles caused gastrointestinal blockages, while smaller ones passed through but may have subtler effects.

2015 White Rose eTheses Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) 9 citations
Article Tier 2

No Effect of Realistic Concentrations of Polyester Microplastic Fibers on Freshwater Zooplankton Communities

Researchers tested whether realistic concentrations of polyester microplastic fibers affect freshwater zooplankton communities in experimental settings. The study found no significant effects on zooplankton abundance, diversity, or community structure at environmentally relevant concentrations, suggesting that current levels of fiber pollution may not substantially impact these organisms.

2023 Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 11 citations
Article Tier 2

No evidence of microplastic impacts on consumption or growth of larval Pimephales promelas

This study found no evidence that microplastic polyethylene microspheres affected the feeding or growth of larval fathead minnows at the concentrations tested. The results suggest that not all microplastic exposures produce measurable harm in fish larvae, and that effect magnitude may depend strongly on particle concentration and type.

2018 Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 37 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic ingestion in fish larvae in the western English Channel

This study found that fish larvae in the western English Channel had ingested microplastics, including fibers and fragments, at early life stages. Because larvae are critical for recruitment success, even sub-lethal plastic exposure during this window could have population-level consequences for commercially important fish species.

2017 Environmental Pollution 443 citations
Article Tier 2

RETRACTED: Environmentally relevant concentrations of microplastic particles influence larval fish ecology

Note: This paper has been retracted by the journal. The original study claimed that microplastic exposure at environmental levels harmed larval fish development and behavior, but the findings were later deemed unreliable. Retracted studies should not be used as evidence for microplastic health effects, though the topic of microplastic impacts on early-life fish development continues to be studied by other research groups.

2016 Science 314 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of a microplastic exposure gradient on juvenile lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush)

Researchers exposed newly hatched lake trout to a gradient of three microplastic types over 12 weeks, assessing growth, survival, and physiological biomarkers. Microplastic exposure caused dose-dependent effects on early life stage fish, with polymer type influencing the pattern of harm.

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

Realistic microplastics harness bacterial presence and promote impairments in early zebrafish embryos: Behavioral, developmental, and transcriptomic approaches.

Researchers exposed zebrafish embryos to realistic microplastic fragments and fibers from bottles and textiles, both alone and combined with a bacterial pathogen. They found that microplastics adhered to egg surfaces and accelerated hatching, while fragments were more harmful to development than fibers. The study provides new insights into how microplastics interact with environmental pathogens to affect early life stages of aquatic organisms.

2024 Chemosphere 13 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics vs. ichthyoplankton: effects of this interaction in controlled and estuarine environments

This literature review synthesizes 60 studies on the interactions between microplastics and ichthyoplankton (fish eggs and larvae), finding that fiber is the most abundant microplastic type in estuarine environments, that particles smaller than 63 µm to 0.5 mm have the highest ingestion probability, and that experimental exposure frequently causes increased heart rates, developmental abnormalities, and behavioral changes in larval fish.

2022 STUDIES IN SOCIAL SCIENCES REVIEW 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Decreased growth and survival in small juvenile fish, after chronic exposure to environmentally relevant concentrations of microplastic

Researchers exposed juvenile glassfish to environmentally realistic concentrations of both virgin and harbor-collected microplastics for 95 days, finding that fish in plastic-fed groups grew significantly less in length, depth, and mass, and had lower survival probability than controls.

2019 Marine Pollution Bulletin 189 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of chronic exposure to microplastics of different polymer types on early life stages of sea trout Salmo trutta

Sea trout embryos and larvae were exposed to polystyrene, PET, and polyethylene microplastics for 113 days and showed no effects on survival or hatching, but all polymer types induced genotoxicity (nuclear abnormalities in red blood cells), with polystyrene causing the greatest DNA damage.

2020 The Science of The Total Environment 93 citations
Article Tier 2

Are Microplastics Impairing Marine Fish Larviculture?—Preliminary Results with Argyrosomus regius

Meagre larvae exposed to polyethylene microplastics for 7 hours ingested particles regardless of concentration, and at the highest dose (10 mg/L) showed reduced feeding activity, altered oxidative stress markers, and neurotoxicity indicators, suggesting short-term physiological impairment.

2021 Water 30 citations
Article Tier 2

Virgin microplastics are not causing imminent harm to fish after dietary exposure

Researchers exposed adult fish to environmentally relevant concentrations of virgin microplastics through their diet over an extended period and found no significant adverse effects on growth, condition, or organ health. The study suggests that clean, unweathered microplastics at realistic concentrations may not cause immediate harm to adult fish, though the authors note that weathered or chemically contaminated particles could produce different outcomes.

2018 Marine Pollution Bulletin 252 citations
Article Tier 2

Embryotoxicity of polystyrene microplastics in zebrafish Danio rerio

Researchers exposed zebrafish embryos to polystyrene microplastics during early development and observed serious physical deformities, particularly in the spine, tail, and eyes, despite no increase in mortality. The exposed larvae also showed elevated expression of genes involved in oxidative stress defense and cellular detoxification. The findings suggest that microplastics can disrupt critical developmental stages in freshwater fish even when they do not directly cause death.

2021 Environmental Research 136 citations
Article Tier 2

Evaluation of the impact of polyethylene microbeads ingestion in European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) larvae

Researchers evaluated the impact of polyethylene microbead ingestion on European sea bass larvae over their early development. The study detected microbeads in the gastrointestinal tract but found limited physiological consequences at the tested concentrations, suggesting that while fish larvae do ingest microplastics, the effects on early development may vary depending on exposure levels.

2015 Marine Environmental Research 388 citations
Article Tier 2

No Effect of Polystyrene Microplastics on Foraging Activity and Survival in a Post-larvae Coral-Reef Fish, Acanthurus triostegus

Exposure to polystyrene microplastics at environmentally relevant concentrations had no measurable effect on foraging activity or survival of juvenile coral reef fish (Acanthurus triostegus) in laboratory trials.

2019 Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 38 citations
Article Tier 2

Organic contaminants sorbed to microplastics affect marine medaka fish early life stages development

Researchers investigated how polyethylene microplastics carrying adsorbed environmental contaminants affect the early life stages of marine medaka fish. The study found that while virgin microplastics alone showed no significant effects, microplastics spiked with benzo(a)pyrene, PFOS, or benzophenone-3 caused developmental impacts in embryos and larvae, demonstrating that microplastics can act as carriers that deliver toxic chemicals to developing fish.

2020 Marine Pollution Bulletin 128 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of pristine or contaminated polyethylene microplastics on zebrafish development

Researchers examined the effects of both pristine and pollutant-contaminated polyethylene microplastics on zebrafish development through chronic exposure. The study assessed how microplastics, both alone and as carriers of adsorbed organic pollutants, affect developing fish. The findings provide new insights into how contaminated microplastics may create additional routes for toxic compounds to enter aquatic food webs.

2022 Chemosphere 66 citations