Papers

19 results
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Article Tier 2

The bioaccumulation characteristics and combined toxicity effects of aged microplastics with adsorbed Hg(II) in oysters

Researchers investigated how mercury-adsorbed microplastics accumulate in oysters and affect their health. They found that aged tire microplastics showed accumulation levels three to six times higher than polyethylene microplastics, and that mercury was primarily delivered to the oysters through the microplastics as carriers via food pathways. Medium and high concentrations of these contaminated microplastics induced oxidative damage, immune dysfunction, and changes in gene expression in the oysters.

2026 Journal of Hazardous Materials
Article Tier 2

Bioaccumulation of microplastics and its in vivo interactions with trace metals in edible oysters

Scientists collected oysters from a Chinese coastal city and found microplastics in all samples, then investigated how microplastics interact with trace metals in vivo, finding that plastic particles and metals co-accumulated in tissues and that plastics may alter metal bioavailability.

2020 Marine Pollution Bulletin 109 citations
Article Tier 2

Accumulation, Depuration, and Biological Effects of Polystyrene Microplastic Spheres and Adsorbed Cadmium and Benzo(a)pyrene on the Mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis

Researchers found that mussels accumulated polystyrene microplastics in a size- and concentration-dependent manner, and that microplastics acted as carriers for the organic pollutant benzo(a)pyrene but not cadmium, with short-term exposure causing digestive gland alterations.

2022 Toxics 34 citations
Article Tier 2

Oyster as sentinels of recent microplastic contamination: Insights from a transplant experiment

Researchers used oyster transplantation experiments to study how microplastics accumulate and are excreted in sentinel organisms under field-realistic conditions. The study found that bivalves can serve as effective biomonitors of recent microplastic contamination in coastal ecosystems. The findings help fill knowledge gaps about the dynamics of microplastic uptake and clearance in marine filter feeders.

2026 Marine Pollution Bulletin
Article Tier 2

Where have all the beads gone? Fate of microplastics in a closed exposure system and their effects on clearance rates in Mytilus spp.

Researchers discovered significant losses of polystyrene microbeads from closed experimental systems with mussels, indicating that exposure concentrations are often lower than intended in lab studies, while also observing that microplastic presence reduced mussel clearance rates.

2022 Marine Pollution Bulletin 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Evaluating Toxic Interactions of Polystyrene Microplastics with Hazardous and Noxious Substances Using the Early Life Stages of the Marine Bivalve Crassostrea gigas

Researchers examined how polystyrene microplastics interact with cadmium and phenanthrene, two common coastal pollutants, using Pacific oyster larvae as a test species. They found that microplastics generally reduced the toxicity of these pollutants but could also act as carriers that alter how the toxins are delivered to the organisms. The study highlights the complex and sometimes unpredictable ways microplastics can change the impact of other pollutants on marine life.

2025 Nanomaterials 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Are microplastics impacting shellfish?

Researchers investigated whether microplastic contamination measurably impacts shellfish physiology, growth, reproduction, and health outcomes, assessing the ecological and food safety implications of microplastic exposure in commercially and ecologically important bivalve species.

2024
Article Tier 2

Toxic effects of exposure to microplastics with environmentally relevant shapes and concentrations: Accumulation, energy metabolism and tissue damage in oyster Crassostrea gigas

Researchers exposed oysters to irregularly shaped polyethylene and PET microplastics at two concentrations for 21 days and measured accumulation, energy metabolism, and tissue damage. They found that the microplastics accumulated in oyster tissues, disrupted energy metabolism, and caused histological damage, with effects varying by polymer type and concentration. The study suggests that environmentally realistic microplastic shapes and concentrations can cause measurable harm to commercially important shellfish species.

2020 Environmental Pollution 213 citations
Article Tier 2

Mercury can be transported into marine copepod by polystyrene nanoplastics but is not bioaccumulated: An increased risk?

Researchers found that polystyrene nanoplastics can transport mercury into marine copepods, but the mercury is not bioaccumulated, suggesting nanoplastics may alter contaminant exposure pathways without necessarily increasing long-term body burdens.

2022 Environmental Pollution 23 citations
Article Tier 2

Ingestion and egestion of polystyrene microplastic fragments by the Pacific oyster, Crassostrea gigas

Researchers investigated size-specific ingestion and egestion of polystyrene microplastic fragments by Pacific oysters, finding that oysters can ingest and later expel microplastics, with the process varying by particle size.

2022 Environmental Pollution 34 citations
Article Tier 2

The world is your oyster: low-dose, long-term microplastic exposure of juvenile oysters

Juvenile oysters were exposed to polystyrene microbeads at three concentrations for 80 days to test long-term, low-dose effects, with microbeads detected in the intestines of exposed oysters but no significant impacts on growth, body condition, or lysosomal stability. The study suggests oysters can tolerate chronic low-level microplastic exposure without major physiological harm.

2019 Heliyon 88 citations
Article Tier 2

Prevalence of Microplastics in the Eastern Oyster Crassostrea virginica in the Chesapeake Bay: The Impact of Different Digestion Methods on Microplastic Properties

Eastern oysters from three Chesapeake Bay sites were found to contain microplastics, with hydrogen peroxide and potassium hydroxide digestion methods yielding the highest recovery rates, while nitric acid produced satisfactory results with better microplastic preservation.

2022 Toxics 19 citations
Article Tier 2

Ingestion and Toxicity of Polystyrene Microplastics in Freshwater Bivalves

Researchers investigated microplastic ingestion in the freshwater mussel Dreissena polymorpha using polystyrene spheres of various sizes. They found that mussels rapidly ingested microplastics and that body burden was influenced by exposure time, body size, food abundance, and microplastic concentration, providing important baseline data on how freshwater bivalves interact with microplastic pollution.

2021 Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 85 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics exposure in European flat oyster, Ostrea edulis: Evaluation of accumulation and depuration under controlled conditions and molecular assessment of a set of reference genes

Researchers assessed microplastic exposure, accumulation, and depuration in European flat oysters (Ostrea edulis), a species of conservation and aquaculture interest. Oysters accumulated microplastics efficiently and required extended depuration periods to substantially reduce body burdens, with implications for food safety.

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

Experimental ingestion of fluorescent microplastics by pacific oysters, Crassostrea gigas, and their effects on the behaviour and development at early stages

Pacific oyster embryos exposed to polystyrene microbeads showed increased developmental malformations at concentrations above 1 milligram per liter, and 3-day-old larvae exposed briefly to the same concentrations ingested particles in their digestive tract and showed reduced swimming speeds. The study highlights early larval stages as particularly sensitive windows for microplastic-induced developmental disruption.

2020 Chemosphere 52 citations
Article Tier 2

Pathway-dependent toxic interaction between polystyrene microbeads and methylmercury on the brackish water flea Diaphanosoma celebensis: Based on mercury bioaccumulation, cytotoxicity, and transcriptomic analysis

Researchers studied how polystyrene microplastics interact with methylmercury toxicity in a small marine crustacean. They found that co-exposure to microplastics actually reduced mercury accumulation and some toxic effects, but the combination triggered synergistic harm to DNA replication processes. The study highlights that microplastics can alter mercury toxicity in complex ways depending on the biological pathway involved.

2023 Journal of Hazardous Materials 16 citations
Article Tier 2

Effects of microplastics alone or with sorbed oil compounds from the water accommodated fraction of a North Sea crude oil on marine mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis)

Researchers investigated whether polystyrene microplastics could act as a Trojan horse for oil pollutants in marine mussels and found that while mussels accumulated PAHs from crude oil exposure, microplastics alone did not significantly enhance pollutant transfer or cause additional toxic effects.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 26 citations
Article Tier 2

Impact of nano- and micro-sized polystyrene beads on larval survival and growth of the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas.

Polystyrene beads at nano (0.55 um) and micro (10, 100 um) sizes were tested on Pacific oyster larvae, with smaller particles causing greater mortality and growth inhibition at lower concentrations, suggesting nanoplastics pose a higher risk to early bivalve development than microplastics.

2024 Journal of hazardous materials
Article Tier 2

Microplastic Content in Oysters (Crassostrea virginica) from South Carolina, USA

Researchers analyzed microplastic content in oysters, water, and sediments from four estuaries in South Carolina, USA, quantifying contamination levels across these matrices in the commercially important Eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica.

2024 Figshare