Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Integrating species sensitivity distributions and toxicity thresholds: A probabilistic risk assessment of microplastics in Yazhou Bay, South China Sea

Researchers assessed microplastic abundance and ecological risk in Yazhou Bay, South China Sea, finding surface water concentrations of 3,437 n/m³ with a modeled estimate reaching 241,000 n/m³ when accounting for smaller particle sizes. Species sensitivity distribution analysis identified significant ecological risk to marine organisms at detected concentrations.

2025 Emerging contaminants
Article Tier 2

Assessment of potential ecological risk for microplastic particles

Researchers applied an ecological risk assessment framework to evaluate the hazard posed by microplastic particles across multiple environmental compartments, using species sensitivity distributions and environmental concentration data. The assessment highlighted specific particle types and size ranges that present the greatest ecological risk.

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

Toward an ecotoxicological risk assessment of microplastics: Comparison of available hazard and exposure data in freshwaters

Researchers compiled available exposure and toxicity data to perform the first probabilistic risk assessment of microplastics specifically in freshwater environments. The study found that while current concentrations in most freshwaters may not yet pose widespread ecological risk, localized hotspots could exceed harmful thresholds, highlighting the need for more standardized freshwater monitoring.

2018 Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 188 citations
Article Tier 2

A probabilistic risk framework for microplastics integrating uncertainty across toxicological and environmental variability: Development and application to marine and freshwater ecosystems

Researchers developed a new probabilistic risk assessment framework for microplastics that accounts for uncertainty in how laboratory toxicity data translates to real environmental conditions. Using Monte Carlo simulation and an enhanced species sensitivity distribution model, they found that uncertainty from particle-trait alignments can drive threshold variability by up to two orders of magnitude. The framework highlights that current risk assessments may underestimate hazards and identifies key research needs for improving microplastic environmental safety thresholds.

2026 Journal of Hazardous Materials
Article Tier 2

Illustrating a Species Sensitivity Distribution for Nano- and Microplastic Particles Using Bayesian Hierarchical Modeling

Researchers developed a Bayesian hierarchical model to construct species sensitivity distributions for nano- and microplastic particles, deriving hazardous concentration thresholds to support environmental risk assessment of plastic pollution.

2022 Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 25 citations
Article Tier 2

Non-traditional species sensitivity distribution approaches to analyze hazardous concentrations of microplastics in marine water

Researchers analyzed species sensitivity distribution curves for microplastic toxicity in marine water using non-traditional approaches, determining hazardous concentration thresholds across multiple toxicity endpoints to support environmental risk assessment.

2023 Journal of Hazardous Materials 9 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in freshwater ecosystems: probabilistic environmental risk assessment and current knowledge in occurrence and ecotoxicological studies

Researchers conducted a comprehensive review of microplastic occurrence in freshwater ecosystems and performed the first probabilistic environmental risk assessment for specific polymer types. They established predicted no-effect concentration values for polystyrene and polyethylene and calculated risk quotients suggesting that current microplastic levels in most freshwater environments pose a low ecological risk.

2025 Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 9 citations
Article Tier 2

Estimating species sensitivity distributions for microplastics by quantitatively considering particle characteristics using a recently created ecotoxicity database

Researchers estimated species sensitivity distributions for microplastics using Bayesian modeling that accounts for particle characteristics such as size, shape, and polymer type. The study suggests that quantitatively considering these microplastic properties yields more accurate environmental risk assessments than traditional approaches that treat all microplastics as equivalent.

2023 Microplastics and Nanoplastics 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Current and potential risks of microplastics in global surface waters

Researchers assessed the current and projected risk of floating microplastics in marine and freshwater ecosystems globally by comparing field occurrence concentrations to ecotoxicity thresholds using probability distributions that account for size mismatches between sampling and toxicity studies. Results estimated that 37% of marine environments already exceed conservative risk thresholds protective of 95% of species, with this fraction projected to rise to 47.4% by 2040 under a business-as-usual scenario.

2022 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Meta Analysis Tier 1

Meta-analysis of the hazards of microplastics in freshwaters using species sensitivity distributions

This meta-analysis built species sensitivity distributions for microplastics in freshwater and found that predicted no-effect concentrations for pristine microplastics were lower than for weathered ones, suggesting lab studies with new plastics may overestimate real-world hazards. The research highlights that most ecotoxicological studies use pristine microplastics at concentrations far exceeding environmental levels, complicating ecological risk assessment.

2023 Journal of Hazardous Materials 30 citations
Article Tier 2

Bayesian species sensitivity distribution modeling for microplastic particles: integrating particle characteristics and intra-species variation

Researchers applied hierarchical Bayesian modeling to develop species sensitivity distributions for microplastics, incorporating particle size, shape, and censored effect data across up to 33 species, finding that smaller particles and fiber shapes are associated with lower chronic no-effect concentrations and estimating hazardous concentrations spanning several orders of magnitude.

2026 Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry
Meta Analysis Tier 1

A Meta-analysis of Ecotoxicological Hazard Data for Nanoplastics in Marine and Freshwater Systems

This meta-analysis assessed the environmental hazard of nanoplastics (extremely tiny plastic particles) in freshwater and marine systems. By building species sensitivity distributions from available toxicity data, it found that nanoplastics can harm aquatic organisms at relatively low concentrations, highlighting the need for better environmental safety thresholds.

2020 Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 69 citations
Article Tier 2

Water environmental capacity of estuarine microplastics capped by species sensitivity threshold

Researchers calculated water environmental capacity limits for microplastics in estuaries using species sensitivity distributions, establishing ecologically protective threshold concentrations that could inform regulatory standards for MP levels in these biologically rich transition zones between rivers and seas.

2025 Journal of Hazardous Materials
Article Tier 2

Assessment of potential ecological risk for microplastic particles

Researchers developed a framework for assessing the ecological risk of microplastic particles, incorporating particle characteristics, environmental concentrations, and species sensitivity data. The assessment identified conditions under which current environmental microplastic levels pose significant risk to aquatic organisms.

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

Assessing the risk of microplastics in marine nearshore environments and biota using the Bayesian network-relative risk model

This study used a weight-of-evidence approach to assess the risks of microplastics to marine nearshore organisms, reviewing physical and chemical hazards from particle ingestion and contaminant adsorption. The analysis provides a risk assessment framework for evaluating microplastic impacts in coastal ecosystems where human seafood consumption is high.

2018 Western CEDAR (Western Washington University)
Article Tier 2

Occurrence, effects and risks of marine microplastics

This review summarizes the state of knowledge on the occurrence, biological effects, and ecological risks of microplastics in the marine environment. It covers plastic sources, distribution patterns, ingestion by marine organisms, and the transfer of chemical pollutants through marine food webs, concluding that microplastic pollution poses serious and growing risks to ocean ecosystems.

2015 Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) 13 citations
Meta Analysis Tier 1

Microplastics could be marginally more hazardous than natural suspended solids – A meta-analysis

Species sensitivity distributions constructed from harmonized toxicity data suggest microplastics may be marginally more hazardous to aquatic organisms than natural suspended sediments, though high uncertainty prevents definitive conclusions. The lack of comparable experimental studies and dose-dependent data was a major limitation.

2023 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 15 citations
Article Tier 2

Modeling the spatiotemporal distribution, bioaccumulation, and ecological risk assessment of microplastics in aquatic ecosystems: A review

Researchers modeled the spatiotemporal distribution and ecological risk of microplastics across a coastal marine environment, incorporating hydrodynamic data and bioaccumulation factors for multiple species. The model predicted highest microplastic concentrations near urban outflows with risk extending through the food web.

2024 Aquatic Toxicology 4 citations
Article Tier 2

A probabilistic risk assessment of microplastics in soil ecosystems

A probabilistic risk assessment comparing environmental microplastic concentrations in soils with effect concentrations from toxicity studies found that current soil microplastic levels pose a low but non-negligible risk to soil biota, with uncertainty driven by data gaps in both exposure and hazard data.

2020 The Science of The Total Environment 116 citations
Article Tier 2

On the probability of ecological risks from microplastics in the Laurentian Great lakes

This study assessed the ecological risks posed by microplastics in the Great Lakes using a probabilistic approach that accounts for data uncertainty. Researchers found that while no lake-wide risk threshold was exceeded, parts of several lakes showed meaningful probabilities of harm, with up to 24% of surface water locations in Lake Ontario at risk. The findings highlight that microplastic pollution in the Great Lakes warrants targeted policy attention, especially in the most contaminated areas.

2023 Environmental Pollution 43 citations
Article Tier 2

Soil-dwelling species-based biomarker as a sensitivity-risk measure of terrestrial ecosystems response to microplastics: A dose–response modeling approach

A dose-response modeling approach was applied to data from soil-dwelling organisms to assess the relative sensitivity of terrestrial ecosystems to microplastic contamination, producing species sensitivity distributions as a risk metric. The analysis revealed that certain soil invertebrates are particularly vulnerable even at relatively low microplastic concentrations.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 13 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in ports worldwide: Environmental concerns or overestimated pollution levels?

This review analyzed microplastic pollution data from 78 ports worldwide and found that port environments can harbor significant concentrations of microplastics in water, sediment, and marine life. About 23% of studied ports had microplastic levels in sediment above the threshold predicted to cause ecological harm. Since ports are connected to fisheries and coastal communities, this pollution could affect both marine ecosystems and the seafood supply chain.

2024 Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology 10 citations
Article Tier 2

Systematic assessment of the mechanisms and risks of micro- and nanoplastic particle exposure in marine invertebrates

Researchers systematically evaluated microplastic and nanoplastic toxicity across diverse marine invertebrate species using data from the ToMEx database. The study constructed species sensitivity distributions and found that nanoplastics generally posed greater hazards than microplastics, with sea urchins and filter-feeding organisms among the most sensitive species, providing ecologically relevant thresholds for risk assessment.

2026 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety
Review Tier 2

Micro/nanoplastics effects on organisms: A review focusing on ‘dose’

This critical review examined published dose-response data for microplastic effects on organisms, finding that the vast majority of studies used concentrations far exceeding measured environmental levels and calling for greater focus on realistic exposure scenarios to produce ecologically meaningful hazard assessments.

2021 Journal of Hazardous Materials 146 citations