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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to A global hydrology research agenda fit for the 2030s
ClearWhere should hydrology go? An early-career perspective on the next IAHS Scientific Decade: 2023-2032
This opinion paper by early-career hydrologists proposes themes for the International Association of Hydrological Sciences' next scientific decade, focusing on water security, extreme events, and the role of hydrology in addressing climate change. The paper emphasizes the need for integrating social and ecological dimensions into hydrological science. Better hydrology underpins effective management of water resources increasingly stressed by plastic and chemical pollution.
Toward Sustainable Environmental Quality: Priority Research Questions for North America
North American environmental researchers identified priority research questions for the field through 2030, including understanding emerging contaminants like microplastics, developing better exposure assessment methods, and linking environmental contamination to human and ecosystem health outcomes. The agenda reflects a growing scientific consensus that integrated, solutions-oriented research is needed to address accelerating environmental threats.
Global multi-pollutant modelling of water quality: scientific challenges and future directions
Researchers argue that tackling global water pollution requires modeling multiple contaminants — microplastics, nutrients, chemicals, and pathogens — simultaneously rather than studying each in isolation. They identify pollution hotspots across Europe, North America, and South Asia where rivers carry dangerous combinations of these pollutants, and call for models that can directly inform policy decisions.
Microplastics as contaminants in freshwater environments: A multidisciplinary review
This multidisciplinary review covers microplastic sources, abundance, composition, transport, and biological effects in freshwater systems globally, arguing that freshwater environments are both major conduits and sinks for microplastic pollution.
Microplastics in freshwater systems: A review of the emerging threats, identification of knowledge gaps and prioritisation of research needs
This review synthesizes the growing body of research on microplastic contamination in freshwater rivers, lakes, and sediments, which has received far less attention than marine environments. Researchers found that freshwater microplastic concentrations can rival or exceed those reported in ocean studies, particularly near urban and industrial areas. The study identifies critical knowledge gaps including the lack of standardized sampling methods and limited understanding of how microplastics affect freshwater organisms and ecosystems.
Present and future of aquatic sciences: The perspective of AIOL scientific community for a priority roadmap over the next five years
Italian aquatic scientists outlined their research priorities for the next five years, emphasizing that aquatic ecosystems face growing challenges from human activities including plastic pollution, climate change, and overuse of water resources. The roadmap calls for better integration of science into water governance and public policy.
Knowledge gaps and opportunities in water-quality drivers of aquatic ecosystem health
This report identifies major gaps in scientific understanding of how water quality factors affect the health of aquatic ecosystems. Researchers highlight challenges including nutrient cycling, emerging contaminants like microplastics and pharmaceuticals, and the need for better monitoring tools. The study proposes new research approaches to improve predictions about how water quality changes impact freshwater and coastal environments.
Which\nMicropollutants in Water Environments Deserve\nMore Attention Globally?
This review analyzed which organic micropollutants in water environments deserve the most global attention based on their toxicity, occurrence frequency, and persistence. Microplastics are among the contaminants considered, alongside pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and industrial chemicals that routinely escape conventional water treatment and accumulate in aquatic ecosystems.
Which\nMicropollutants in Water Environments Deserve\nMore Attention Globally?
This review analyzed which organic micropollutants in water environments deserve the most global attention based on their toxicity, occurrence frequency, and persistence. Microplastics are among the contaminants considered, alongside pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and industrial chemicals that routinely escape conventional water treatment and accumulate in aquatic ecosystems.
Measures for improving water quality to bend the curve of global freshwater biodiversity loss
This paper examines measures for improving water quality to reverse the decline of global freshwater biodiversity, addressing pollutants including microplastics along with chemicals, heat, light, and pathogens. Researchers analyzed the complex pathways through which these contaminants degrade aquatic ecosystems worldwide. The study identifies strategies for reducing pollutant loads to protect freshwater species and ecosystem health.
Transforming Pollution into Purity: Ensuring Water Quality for Human Health and Environmental Sustainability
This review examines global threats to water quality from contaminants including microplastics, heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, and agrochemicals, and their consequences for human health and ecosystems. The authors advocate for a comprehensive strategy combining source protection, advanced treatment technologies like constructed wetlands and advanced oxidation, and robust governance to ensure safe water access.
Microplastic analysis in urban areas and their impact on quality of life
Researchers reviewed the growing threat of microplastic pollution to biodiversity and human health, focusing on freshwater systems as a key exposure pathway. The study emphasizes the need for standardized identification methods for microplastics in freshwater environments.
Freshwater microplastics governance and sustainable development: Pollution status, interactions, policies, and prospective studies
This review examines 20 years of research on microplastic pollution in freshwater environments, covering pollution status, interactions with other contaminants, and governance policies across multiple countries. The study suggests that while various policy frameworks exist for reducing microplastic sources and improving waste management, more coordinated monitoring and evaluation efforts are needed to effectively address freshwater microplastic contamination.
Science and Technology for Water Purification: Achievements and Strategies
This review covers the latest science and technology for purifying water, addressing the global challenges of water scarcity and pollution. It discusses emerging contaminants including microplastics and the treatment methods needed to remove them. The findings are relevant to human health because current water treatment systems may not fully remove microplastics and other new pollutants from drinking water.
Interconnected impacts of water resource management and climate change on microplastic pollution and riverine biocoenosis: A review by freshwater ecologists
Researchers reviewed how river hydrology, water resource management, and climate change interact to influence microplastic pollution in freshwater ecosystems. They found that floods can flush microplastics from catchments, while reservoirs act as both sinks and sources, and extreme weather events driven by climate change tend to concentrate microplastics and threaten aquatic organisms. The study highlights a critical gap in research that jointly addresses these interconnected factors and calls for integrated policy approaches.
A Comprehensive Method for Water Environment Assessment considering Trends of Water Quality
Researchers developed a comprehensive water quality assessment method that accounts for both current pollution levels and trends over time, applying it to rivers feeding a major Chinese reservoir. Water quality assessment frameworks are increasingly being adapted to include microplastic contamination as a standard monitoring parameter.
Microplastics monitoring in freshwater systems: A review of global efforts, knowledge gaps, and research priorities
This review of global microplastic monitoring in freshwater systems found that contamination is widespread, with higher levels near areas of intense human activity in the US, Europe, and China. The lack of standardized testing methods makes it difficult to compare results across studies, which hampers efforts to assess risks to drinking water safety and human health.
Trends and gaps in microplastics research in Tropical freshwater ecosystems
This review synthesizes the state of microplastics research in tropical freshwater ecosystems, identifying major knowledge gaps related to the high rates of untreated water, flooding dynamics, and reservoir abundance in the tropics that distinguish these environments from better-studied temperate and marine systems.
Microplastics in freshwater ecosystems: what we know and what we need to know
This review examines the state of knowledge on microplastic contamination in freshwater ecosystems, which have received far less scientific attention than marine environments despite being major pathways for plastic transport. Researchers found that freshwater microplastic concentrations can be extremely high near urban areas and that organisms from insects to fish readily ingest these particles. The study identifies key research gaps including the need for standardized detection methods and better understanding of how microplastics move through and affect freshwater food webs.
Emerging threats and persistent conservation challenges for freshwater biodiversity
This review provides a comprehensive overview of microplastic pollution in freshwater environments, covering sources, distribution, and ecological impacts in rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. Researchers found that freshwater microplastic contamination is widespread globally but that standardized sampling and analysis methods are still lacking. The study calls for more consistent research approaches so that contamination levels across different water bodies can be meaningfully compared.
Future Global Groundwater Quality Challenges
This review outlines emerging and legacy groundwater quality challenges that threaten drinking water security globally, including microplastic contamination alongside chemical and microbial pollutants. The authors call for improved monitoring and treatment infrastructure to protect future groundwater supplies.
Watershed Ecohydrological Processes in a Changing Environment: Opportunities and Challenges
This review examines watershed ecohydrological processes under changing environmental conditions, including the impacts of climate change and human activities on water quantity and quality. Researchers propose a new integrated framework for watershed management that incorporates socioeconomic activities alongside ecological and hydrological monitoring. The study identifies emerging environmental concerns, including microplastic pollution, as factors that need to be incorporated into modern watershed management strategies.
Multi-Interacting Natural and Anthropogenic Stressors on Freshwater Ecosystems: Their Current Status and Future Prospects for 21st Century
This review examines how multiple environmental stressors including pollution, climate change, invasive species, and nanoparticles are simultaneously degrading freshwater ecosystems worldwide. The combined effects of these stressors, including microplastic contamination, threaten both the ecological health of freshwater systems and the clean water supplies that human civilization depends on.
Trends of global concerns on groundwater contamination and future directions
A bibliometric review of nearly 39,000 groundwater contamination studies from 1991–2024 tracks a shift in research focus from classic pollutants toward emerging contaminants including microplastics, PFAS, and pharmaceuticals, while noting most of these remain unregulated. The review is relevant to microplastic risk assessment because it identifies groundwater — a source of drinking water for billions — as a frontier where microplastic research and regulation urgently need to catch up.