Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Multi stress system: Microplastics in freshwater and their effects on host microbiota

This study examined how combined exposure to microplastics and organic chemical pollutants affects freshwater organisms through a multi-stress approach, focusing on gut microbiome changes as an indicator. Microplastic exposure in combination with other pollutants altered microbiome composition more than either stressor alone, with potential consequences for host fitness and disease resistance.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 14 citations
Article Tier 2

Hampered Survival Strategies and Altered Fish Behaviour Under the Threat of Fluoxetine, Microplastics, Mercury Toxicity, Thermal Discharge, and Pesticides

This review examines how multiple aquatic stressors — mercury pollution, microplastics, fluoxetine, pesticides, and thermal discharge — impair fish behavior and survival, covering disrupted predator avoidance, foraging, reproduction, and neurological function across species.

2025 Pollution Research
Article Tier 2

Interactive Threats: Multi-stress Systems in Aquatic Environments

Researchers examined how aquatic organisms face multiple simultaneous stressors — including plastic pollution, climate change, altered pH, and habitat loss — finding that the combined interactive effects of these threats are poorly understood yet critical to developing effective conservation and management strategies.

2023 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Exposure to microplastics impairs fish's major behaviors. A novel threat to aquatic ecosystem

This review synthesises evidence on how microplastic exposure alters key behaviours in fish including feeding, reproduction, predator avoidance, and social interaction. It identifies neurological disruption, chemical co-toxicity, and gut effects as primary mechanisms, and highlights exposure to realistic environmental concentrations as an ongoing knowledge gap.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials Plastics
Review Tier 2

Microplastics and behavioral changes in fish: an integrative review

This integrative review synthesizes the scientific literature on how microplastic exposure affects fish behavior, covering feeding, reproduction, predator avoidance, and social interactions. Exposure to microplastics consistently disrupted behavioral endpoints across fish species, with effects linked to oxidative stress, neurotoxicity, and endocrine disruption.

2024 Caderno Pedagógico 1 citations
Article Tier 2

The role of environmental stress in fish health: A review

This review examines how environmental stressors including temperature changes, pesticide contamination, microplastics, and algal blooms affect fish health. Researchers found that these factors substantially influence fish growth, reproduction, respiration, and metabolic function. The study emphasizes the need for new strategies to address the growing impact of environmental changes on aquatic ecosystems and the global fish economy.

2025 GSC Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in Limnic Ecosystems - Investigation of Biological Fate and Effects of Microplastic Particles and Associated Contaminants in Zebrafish (Danio rerio)-

This doctoral thesis investigated how microplastics and their associated chemical contaminants affect zebrafish (Danio rerio) in freshwater environments, including ingestion, tissue accumulation, and toxicological effects. The research demonstrates that microplastics can act as vectors for pollutants like pesticides and pharmaceuticals, compounding their harmful effects on aquatic organisms.

2020 heiDOK (Heidelberg University) 5 citations
Article Tier 2

From plankton to fish: The multifaceted threat of microplastics in freshwater environments

This review summarizes how microplastics harm freshwater organisms from tiny plankton to fish through oxidative stress, inflammation, DNA damage, gut microbiome disruption, and metabolic disorders. Microplastics often combine with other pollutants in water, making their toxic effects even worse. Since freshwater systems are a major pathway for microplastics entering oceans and our food supply, understanding these effects is critical for protecting both ecosystems and human health.

2025 Aquatic Toxicology 17 citations
Article Tier 2

Plastics in our water: Fish microbiomes at risk?

This review examined how microplastics and leached plasticizers affect the gut microbiomes of freshwater and marine fish, summarizing evidence for dysbiosis and reduced microbial diversity and discussing potential consequences for fish immunity, metabolism, and environmental fitness.

2021 Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part D Genomics and Proteomics 25 citations
Article Tier 2

Toxicity Effects of Microplastics Individually and in Combination the Fish Pathogen Yersinia Ruckeri on the Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus Mykiss)

Researchers found that co-exposure of rainbow trout to polystyrene microplastics and the fish pathogen Yersinia ruckeri exacerbated blood biochemical disruptions and hepatic oxidative stress compared to either stressor alone. The results suggest microplastics may act as a predisposing factor that amplifies bacterial infection severity in fish.

2021 6 citations
Article Tier 2

The Toxicity of Polyethylene Microplastic Exposure and Its Concurrent Effect With Aeromonas Hydrophila Infection To Zebrafish

This study exposed adult zebrafish to polyethylene microplastics while simultaneously infecting them with Aeromonas hydrophila bacteria, a common fish pathogen. Microplastic exposure worsened bacterial infection outcomes, suggesting that plastic pollution may reduce fish immune defenses. The interaction between microplastic contamination and disease susceptibility is relevant to understanding how pollution affects aquatic ecosystem health.

2021 Research Square (Research Square) 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Effect of microplastics on Yersinia ruckeri infection in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

Researchers found that microplastic exposure predisposed rainbow trout to more severe Yersinia ruckeri infections, with co-exposed fish showing worse blood biochemical parameters and hepatic oxidative stress compared to fish exposed to the pathogen alone.

2021 Environmental Science and Pollution Research 39 citations
Article Tier 2

Testing the health status of marine and fresh waters by investigating microplastics in the stomach contents of different fish species

This PhD project investigated microplastic presence in stomach contents of fish from four sites ranging from a commercial port to a lake, characterizing microplastic types and abundances to assess environmental health status across marine, brackish, and freshwater ecosystems.

2025 CINECA IRIS Institutial Research Information System (University of Genoa)
Article Tier 2

Water Quality and Fish Health: Interaction with Toxic Substances

This review examines how various toxic substances in water, including microplastics, affect fish health through physiological, behavioral, and biochemical pathways. Researchers summarized evidence that pollutants can accumulate in fish tissues and impair their immune systems, reproduction, and organ function. The study emphasizes that declining water quality from emerging contaminants poses growing risks to aquatic ecosystems and the species that depend on them.

2024 3 citations
Meta Analysis Tier 1

Microplastic-stressor responses are rarely synergistic in freshwater fishes: A meta-analysis

A meta-analysis of 838 responses from 36 studies found that combined microplastic-stressor effects on freshwater fish are predominantly antagonistic (48%) or additive (34%), with synergistic effects least frequent at only 17%. This means that addressing either microplastic pollution or co-occurring stressors individually is likely to produce positive outcomes, rather than both needing to be resolved simultaneously.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics as an Emerging Threat to the Freshwater Fishes: a Review

This review examines microplastics as an emerging threat to freshwater fishes, covering their sources from cosmetics and plastic debris fragmentation, routes of entry including wastewater treatment plants, and documented toxic effects on fish physiology and behavior.

2022 International Journal of Biological Innovations 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Co-exposure to microplastics and bisphenol A increases viral susceptibility in largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) via oxidative stress

Researchers found that juvenile fish exposed to both microplastics and BPA (a chemical found in plastics) together became more susceptible to viral infection, even though neither pollutant alone had that effect. The combination shut down the fish's antioxidant defenses and caused liver cell death, weakening their immune system. This study is important because it shows that common pollutants can interact in unexpected ways, and real-world exposure to multiple contaminants may be more dangerous than lab tests of single substances suggest.

2025 Advanced Biotechnology 5 citations
Article Tier 2

Presença e efeitos da poluição plástica em peixes marinhos e de água doce

This thesis (in Portuguese) investigates plastic contamination in freshwater and marine fish, examining physiological, functional, and ecological effects across multiple levels of biological organization, including food safety implications for human consumption. The author finds that the scientific community has made progress on understanding individual-level effects but that broader ecological impacts and ecosystem-level consequences remain underexplored. The work contributes important evidence that plastic pollution in fish poses intertwined risks for wildlife and the people who eat them.

2023 LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas)
Systematic Review Tier 1

Global meta‐analysis reveals diverse effects of microplastics on freshwater and marine fishes

This systematic review and meta-analysis examines the effects of microplastics on fish in both freshwater and ocean environments. The findings show that microplastics reduce feeding, impair digestion, slow growth, and weaken immune function in fish, which is concerning because contaminated fish are a major food source for people worldwide.

2022 Fish and Fisheries 69 citations
Article Tier 2

Drenched in microplastic environment: Physiological and metabolic disruptions in fish

This literature review synthesized studies on the physiological and metabolic disruptions microplastics cause in fish, finding impacts across multiple organ systems including the liver, gut, gills, and reproductive organs depending on particle type and exposure duration.

2025 International Journal of Biology Sciences
Article Tier 2

Assessing the Effects of Microplastics on Freshwater Fish

This review examines the growing body of research on how microplastics affect freshwater fish, documenting evidence of ingestion, tissue damage, immune system impairment, and gastrointestinal obstruction across multiple species. Researchers highlight that microplastics from personal care products and degraded plastic goods are accumulating in freshwater ecosystems at concerning rates. The study warns that combined with existing threats like overfishing and habitat loss, microplastic pollution could accelerate population declines in vulnerable fish species.

2024 International Journal of Nature and Life Sciences 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Ingestão e efeitos morfofisiológicos dos microplásticos em espécies de peixes da Amazônia Central

This Brazilian thesis investigates microplastic ingestion and its effects on fish from the Amazon basin, one of the world's most biodiverse freshwater systems. Given that aquatic organisms in even remote areas are exposed to microplastics, the research highlights risks to Amazon fish diversity and the potential for microplastics to disrupt aquatic food webs in previously pristine ecosystems.

2022
Article Tier 2

Biological Indices as Markers of the Health of Cirrhinus mrigala under the Stress of Microplastics and Metal Nanoparticles

Researchers examined how low-density polyethylene microplastics and nickel oxide nanoparticles, individually and combined, affect the health of the freshwater fish Cirrhinus mrigala over 60 days of exposure and 60 days of recovery. They found that combined exposure caused significant declines in body condition, abnormal swimming behavior, excessive mucus secretion, and even tumor formation. The study suggests that the co-presence of microplastics and metal nanoparticles in waterways can have compounding adverse effects on fish health that do not fully resolve after the pollution source is removed.

2025 Ecotoxicology 1 citations
Meta Analysis Tier 1

Comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis of microplastic prevalence and abundance in freshwater fish species: the effect of fish species habitat, feeding behavior, and Fulton’s condition factor

A meta-analysis of freshwater fish across 42 studies found an average of 2.35 microplastic items per individual, with 80% of research focused on the gastrointestinal tract and 58% on river environments. Contrary to expectations, microplastic ingestion correlated with fish body physiology (size and weight) rather than feeding behavior or habitat, suggesting physical characteristics determine uptake more than ecological niche.

2024 Journal of Environmental Health Science and Engineering 11 citations