Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Impact of microalgal biomass and microplastics on the sorption behaviour of pesticides in soil: a comparative study

Researchers examined how microalgal biomass interacts with microplastics to influence pesticide sorption behavior, finding that algal exudates coating MP surfaces altered their affinity for pesticides and affected the overall fate of pesticide-MP complexes in water.

2025 Environmental Sciences Europe 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Efficiency of Microalgae Employment in Nutrient Removal (Nitrogen and Phosphorous) from Municipal Wastewater

This review examines how microalgae (tiny aquatic plants) can be used to remove nitrogen and phosphorus pollutants from municipal wastewater. While not directly about microplastics, this research is relevant because effective wastewater treatment is one way to reduce the amount of microplastics that reach waterways and eventually the food chain.

2025 Water 12 citations
Article Tier 2

Microalgae–microplastics interactions at environmentally relevant concentrations: Implications toward ecology, bioeconomy, and UN SDGs

This study investigated how microalgae interact with microplastics at environmentally relevant concentrations, examining growth inhibition, aggregation, and photosynthetic effects, with implications for aquatic ecosystem function and the feasibility of microalgae-based bioremediation.

2023 Water Research 23 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic interactions with co-existing pollutants in water environments: Synergistic or antagonistic roles on their removal through current remediation technologies

This review examines how microplastics interact with other pollutants like heavy metals, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals in water, often making each contaminant harder to remove during treatment. The interactions between microplastics and co-existing pollutants can produce unpredictable combined toxic effects that are worse than either pollutant alone. Understanding these interactions is important because real-world water contamination involves mixtures, not single pollutants, and current treatment methods may not adequately address these combinations.

2025 Journal of Environmental Management 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Remediation and upcycling of microplastics by algae with wastewater nutrient removal and bioproduction potential

Researchers demonstrated that algae can simultaneously remediate microplastics from water and remove nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater, while also producing valuable biomass, presenting an integrated and sustainable platform that converts plastic waste into a resource.

2025 Nature Communications 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Interplay of plastic pollution with algae and plants: hidden danger or a blessing?

Researchers tested the ability of three microalgae species to remove microplastics from water through bioadhesion, finding that all three species could adsorb particles onto their surfaces. Removal efficiency depended on particle size, surface charge, and algae cell morphology.

2022 Journal of Hazardous Materials 65 citations
Article Tier 2

State-of-the-art microalgae-based bioreactor wastewater treatment for the elimination of emerging contaminants: A mechanistic review

Researchers reviewed how bioreactors using microalgae — tiny photosynthetic organisms — can remove a wide range of pollutants from wastewater, including microplastics, heavy metals, and pesticides, through processes like absorption and biological breakdown. While promising, the technology still faces challenges around scaling up and maintaining consistent performance in real-world treatment facilities.

2024 Cleaner Water 11 citations
Article Tier 2

Are native microalgae consortia able to remove microplastics from wastewater effluents?

Researchers investigated whether native microalgae communities found in wastewater could effectively remove microplastics from treatment plant effluent. The study monitored microplastic occurrence across two different types of wastewater treatment plants over one year, characterizing particles by shape, size, and polymer type. Evidence indicates that wastewater-native microalgae consortia show potential as a dual-purpose solution for both microplastic mitigation and biomass production.

2024 Environmental Pollution 18 citations
Article Tier 2

Evaluating the impact of innovative algae- based membrane bioreactors against the emerging microplastic crisisin combating water pollution

This study evaluated algae-based membrane bioreactors for removing microplastics and other emerging contaminants from wastewater, finding that combining algal biomass with membrane filtration improved MP removal efficiency compared to conventional biological treatment alone.

2025
Article Tier 2

Are algae a promising ecofriendly approach to micro/nanoplastic remediation?

This review examines the potential of algae as an eco-friendly approach to removing micro- and nanoplastics from wastewater treatment plant effluents, covering mechanisms including interception, entanglement, and heteroaggregation. Algae also offer the added benefit of nutrient recovery from wastewater and can be further processed into biochar or biofertilizer.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 20 citations
Meta Analysis Tier 1

Micro- and nanoplastics interact with conventional pollutants on microalgae: Synthesis through meta-analysis

This meta-analysis of 933 experimental assessments found that micro- and nanoplastics interact with conventional pollutants like heavy metals and pesticides on microalgae in predominantly antagonistic ways, meaning the combined toxicity was often less than expected. This occurs because plastic particles adsorb pollutants from the water, reducing their bioavailability, though the effect varies by plastic size, charge, and aging.

2023 Environmental Pollution 22 citations
Article Tier 2

Looking into the effects of co-contamination by micro(nano)plastics in the presence of other pollutants on irrigated edible plants

This review examines the combined effects of micro- and nanoplastics with other pollutants found in treated wastewater used for crop irrigation. Researchers analyzed 19 studies and found that the joint exposure to plastics and contaminants like heavy metals or pesticides often produced different toxicity outcomes than either pollutant alone. The findings suggest that using reclaimed wastewater for irrigation may expose food crops to complex mixtures of pollutants whose combined effects are still poorly understood.

2023 The Science of The Total Environment 25 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic interactions with freshwater microalgae: Hetero-aggregation and changes in plastic density appear strongly dependent on polymer type

Researchers studied interactions between microplastics and freshwater microalgae, finding that microplastics can physically attach to algal cells to form hetero-aggregates, altering both particle behavior and algal physiology.

2016 Environmental Pollution 704 citations
Article Tier 2

Recent Advances in Micro-/Nanoplastic (MNPs) Removal by Microalgae and Possible Integrated Routes of Energy Recovery

This review examined the interactions between micro- and nanoplastics and microalgae, covering how microalgae are affected by plastic particles and how they can in turn be used to remove plastics from aquatic environments. The authors identify microalgae-based systems as promising tools for combined plastic removal and biomass production.

2022 Microorganisms 51 citations
Article Tier 2

Removal of Microplastics from Industrial Wastewater Using Microalgae

This review examines the use of microalgae as a sustainable biological approach for removing microplastics from wastewater, covering mechanisms of MP attachment to algal surfaces, factors affecting removal efficiency, and prospects for integrating algae cultivation with wastewater treatment.

2025
Article Tier 2

Degradable Microplastics as Vector of Emergent Contaminants in Wastewater: Interactions and Mechanisms of Adsorption

Degradable microplastics in wastewater can act as carriers for pesticides and other contaminants, adsorbing them from the surrounding water and potentially releasing them again in different environmental conditions such as aeration tanks. This 'Trojan horse' behavior is concerning because microplastics may transport pollutants through wastewater treatment systems that were not designed to capture these combined threats.

2023 Proceedings of the Water Environment Federation
Article Tier 2

Micro/nano-plastics and microalgae in aquatic environment: Influence factor, interaction, and molecular mechanisms.

This review examined the interactions between micro/nanoplastics and microalgae in aquatic environments, summarizing how plastic particle size, surface chemistry, and co-pollutants influence algal toxicity through oxidative stress, photosynthesis inhibition, and gene expression changes.

2024 The Science of the total environment
Article Tier 2

Eradicating microplastics in wastewater: microalgae as a sustainable strategy

This review examines the use of microalgae as a sustainable strategy for removing microplastics from wastewater, discussing biosorption mechanisms, removal efficiencies, and the limitations of conventional treatment plants that typically achieve only up to 90% MP removal.

2025 The Science of The Total Environment
Article Tier 2

Advances in responses of microalgal-bacterial symbiosis to emerging pollutants in wastewater

Researchers reviewed how microalgal-bacterial symbiotic systems respond to antibiotics, heavy metals, nanoparticles, and microplastics in wastewater, finding that antibiotics exhibit hormesis effects (stimulatory at low doses, inhibitory at high doses) and that the consortium tolerates heavy metals below 1 mg/L but loses treatment efficacy at 10 mg/L.

2023 World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology 9 citations
Article Tier 2

Simazine degradation in agroecosystems: Will it be affected by the type and amount of microplastic pollution?

Researchers investigated for the first time how the type and amount of microplastic pollution affects simazine herbicide degradation in agroecosystems, exploring the poorly understood synergistic interactions between plastic and pesticide contaminants in soil.

2022 Land Degradation and Development 32 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics shaped performance, microbial ecology and community assembly in simultaneous nitrification, denitrification and phosphorus removal process

This study found that polystyrene and PVC microplastics disrupted the performance of wastewater treatment systems designed to remove nitrogen and phosphorus, reducing nitrogen removal by up to 10%. The microplastics altered microbial communities, decreased cooperation between beneficial bacteria, and blocked important biological pathways. Since wastewater treatment is a key barrier against pollution reaching drinking water, microplastic interference with these systems could indirectly increase human exposure to harmful contaminants.

2024 The Science of The Total Environment 12 citations
Article Tier 2

[Research Process on the Combined Pollution of Microplastics and Typical Pollutants in Agricultural Soils].

This review examined research on the combined pollution of microplastics and typical agricultural pollutants including pesticides, heavy metals, and fertilizers in agroecosystems. The paper discussed how co-existing pollutants interact with microplastics to create compound pollution with elevated ecological and human health risks.

2024 PubMed 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Influence of microplastics on microalgal performance during wastewater polishing

Researchers studied how five common types of microplastics affect the green alga Chlorella vulgaris during wastewater treatment. They found that while microplastics reduced algal metabolism and growth, the organism maintained its ability to effectively remove nutrients from wastewater. The study demonstrates that Chlorella vulgaris is a robust candidate for bioremediation of microplastic-contaminated wastewater, even under pollutant stress.

2026 Journal of Environmental Sciences
Article Tier 2

Exploring the Synergistic Effects of Agitation on the Interaction Between Nanoparticles of Polyethylene and Benzophenone in Microalgae Tetraselmis sp.

This study examined how agitation levels affect the interaction between polyethylene nanoparticles and the insecticide benzophenone in microalgae, finding that agitation significantly altered toxicity outcomes. The results suggest that physical conditions in aquatic environments influence how microplastics and co-pollutants affect marine organisms.

2023 American Journal of Environmental Sciences 1 citations