Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

Contaminated aquatic sediments

This 2019 review summarizes published research on contaminated aquatic sediments, covering monitoring methods, pollutant transport, and remediation strategies across multiple contaminant types including microplastics. Aquatic sediments are a major sink and reservoir for microplastics as well as the chemical pollutants they carry.

2020 Water Environment Research 7 citations
Article Tier 2

Hotspots lurking underwater: Insights into the contamination characteristics, environmental fates and impacts on biogeochemical cycling of microplastics in freshwater sediments

This review examines how microplastics accumulate in freshwater lake and river sediments, which act as major collection points for these particles. Researchers found that microplastic distribution in sediments varies significantly depending on local conditions, and that the particles can alter nutrient cycling and affect sediment-dwelling organisms. The study highlights freshwater sediments as critical but understudied hotspots for microplastic contamination.

2024 Journal of Hazardous Materials 34 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in sediments: A review of techniques, occurrence and effects

This review examined techniques, occurrence data, and ecological effects of microplastics in sediments, synthesizing evidence that sediments act as a major long-term repository for microplastic contamination in both freshwater and marine systems.

2015 Marine Environmental Research 1190 citations
Article Tier 2

Bottom Sediments as Dynamic Arenas for Anthropogenic Pollutants: Profiling Sources, Unraveling Fate Mechanisms, and Assessing Ecological Consequences

This review examines bottom sediments as dynamic sinks and sources for contaminants including heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, microplastics, and nutrients, synthesizing how sediment chemistry, hydrodynamics, and biological activity determine whether pollutants are stored or remobilized.

2025 International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2 citations
Article Tier 2

The Environmental Impacts and Remediation Strategies of Microplastics in Aquatic Sediments

This review comprehensively examines microplastic contamination in aquatic sediments worldwide, where concentrations are typically three to five orders of magnitude higher than in the water above — making sediments the dominant reservoir of plastic pollution in rivers, lakes, and oceans. The paper covers how microplastics enter and accumulate in sediments, how they bind to other contaminants like heavy metals and pesticides, and the ecological risks to bottom-dwelling organisms. It identifies major gaps in monitoring and calls for standardized methods to make global comparisons possible.

2026 Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management
Article Tier 2

Carbon Cycling in Wetlands Under the Shadow of Microplastics: Challenges and Prospects

This review examines how microplastics disrupt carbon cycling in wetlands, which are critical ecosystems for capturing and storing carbon that would otherwise contribute to climate change. Microplastics can damage plant roots, alter soil microbial communities, and accelerate the breakdown of stored organic carbon, leading to increased greenhouse gas emissions. The findings highlight that microplastic pollution may undermine wetlands' ability to help regulate the climate.

2025 Toxics 8 citations
Article Tier 2

Streambed pollution: A comprehensive review of its sources, eco-hydro-geo-chemical impacts, assessment, and mitigation strategies

This comprehensive review covers the sources, ecological impacts, and mitigation strategies for streambed pollution from multiple contaminants including sediments, nutrients, metals, and emerging pollutants including microplastics. Streambeds are critical habitat for many organisms and act as both sinks and sources of contaminants in river systems. The review identifies microplastics as a rapidly growing streambed pollutant with poorly understood long-term ecological effects.

2021 1 citations
Article Tier 2

An insight into the ecological risks and mitigation of heavy metal pollution in aquatic sediments and marine ecosystems

This review examines heavy metal pollution in aquatic sediments and marine ecosystems, covering contamination sources, ecological risks, and mitigation strategies. The study highlights the deterioration of aquatic zones due to rising pollution from urbanization and industrialization, and discusses how pollutants including microplastics interact with heavy metals to affect biogeochemical cycling and the food chain.

2026 Frontiers in Bacteriology
Article Tier 2

Influence of microplastics on nutrients and metal concentrations in river sediments

Researchers investigated how microplastics influence nutrient and metal concentrations in river sediments, finding that microplastics alter the distribution of pollutants through their capacity to adsorb contaminants and support biofilm formation on their hydrophobic surfaces.

2020 Environmental Pollution 64 citations
Review Tier 2

Streambed pollution: A comprehensive review of its sources, eco-hydro-geo-chemical impacts, assessment, and mitigation strategies.

This comprehensive review covers sources, ecological impacts, and mitigation strategies for pollution in streambeds — including contributions from microplastics, heavy metals, and organic contaminants. Streambeds are overlooked pollution reservoirs that link land-based pollution sources to downstream aquatic ecosystems.

2022 Chemosphere
Article Tier 2

The role of soils in the disposition, sequestration and decontamination of environmental contaminants

This review examines the dual role of soil as both a source and sink for environmental contaminants, including microplastics, pesticides, and heavy metals. Researchers found that complex interactions between soil properties, contaminants, and biological processes determine how pollutants are transformed, stored, or transferred to water and air. The study highlights that understanding soil's role in contaminant cycling is essential for developing effective decontamination strategies.

2021 Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences 81 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic effects on carbon cycling processes in soils

Researchers reviewed how microplastics affect carbon cycling processes in soils, including their influence on microbial activity, plant growth, and litter decomposition. Since microplastics are themselves carbon-based materials, they can directly alter soil carbon stocks while also indirectly shifting microbial communities. The study calls for a major research effort to understand the widespread effects of microplastics on soil functioning and terrestrial ecosystem health.

2021 PLoS Biology 503 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic: A Silent Contaminant in Aquatic Ecosystems and Its Ecological Consequences

This review examines microplastics as a pervasive but underappreciated contaminant in aquatic ecosystems, synthesizing evidence on their sources, distribution, uptake pathways in aquatic organisms, and broader ecological consequences for freshwater and marine food webs.

2025 International Journal of Science Architecture Technology and Environment
Article Tier 2

Microplastic Contamination in Freshwater Environments: A Review, Focusing on Interactions with Sediments and Benthic Organisms

This review focuses on microplastic contamination in freshwater sediments and the interactions between microplastics, sediment particles, and benthic organisms, synthesizing evidence on how sediment properties influence microplastic accumulation and how benthic fauna are exposed and affected.

2020 Environments 412 citations
Article Tier 2

Soil carbon cycling mediated by microplastics: Formation, mineralization, and sequestration

This review examines how microplastic pollution affects soil organic carbon cycling, covering direct participation in carbon processes and indirect effects on soil physicochemical properties and microbial communities. The authors synthesize mechanisms by which microplastics influence organic carbon formation, mineralization, and sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems.

2024 Scientia Sinica Technologica 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Ecological disturbances and abundance of anthropogenic pollutants in the aquatic ecosystem: Critical review of impact assessment on the aquatic animals.

This critical review assessed the ecological disturbances caused by anthropogenic pollutants including microplastics in aquatic ecosystems, examining uptake, accumulation, and biological effects across invertebrate and vertebrate species, and identifying gaps in understanding of long-term ecotoxicological impacts at environmentally relevant concentrations.

2023 Chemosphere
Article Tier 2

Micro-plastics in Aquatic Environment: Source, Fate, Emerging Threats, and Regulatory Effort

This review covers sources, distribution, and threats of microplastics in aquatic environments, tracing their movement through rivers, estuaries, lakes, and oceans and their accumulation in sediments and the food chain. The paper also reviews emerging policy frameworks aimed at reducing plastic pollution, providing a broad overview of the microplastic problem in water systems.

2023 International Journal of Environment and Climate Change 1 citations
Article Tier 2

Environmental Impact of Microplastics in Aquatic Ecosystems: A Review of Current Research and Future Directions

This review examines microplastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems, covering chemical, biological, and ecological processes beyond simple physical contamination and identifying priority areas for future research directions.

2025 Indus journal of bioscience research.
Article Tier 2

The Microplastic Cycle: An Introduction to a Complex Issue

This study introduces and expands the microplastic cycle concept as a framework for understanding how plastic particles move across ecosystem reservoirs, connecting source-receptor models with the fate, transport, and effects of plastic pollution.

2021 Environmental contamination remediation and management 26 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in the Aquatic Environment – Effects on Ocean Carbon Sequestration and Sustenance of Marine Life

This review examines how microplastic pollution in marine environments disrupts ocean carbon sequestration and marine life sustenance, with sources including city dust, tires, synthetic textiles, and personal care products contributing to far-reaching ecological consequences.

2023 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Different partition of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon on environmental particulates in freshwater: Microplastics in comparison to natural sediment

This study investigated how the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon phenanthrene partitions between water and three common plastic types, finding that polymer composition strongly influences sorption behavior. The results help explain how microplastics act as vectors for toxic organic compounds in aquatic environments.

2017 Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety 233 citations
Article Tier 2

Exploring bioaccumulation patterns and ecological risks of microplastics in aquatic ecosystems

This review comprehensively examined microplastic bioaccumulation and ecological risk in aquatic ecosystems, covering sources, environmental pathways, and the risks microplastics pose to organisms across trophic levels in rivers, lakes, and marine environments.

2025
Article Tier 2

Microplastics in Surface Waters: A Critical Review of Emerging Challenges and Future Perspectives

This review examines microplastic contamination across aquatic environments, covering detection technologies, ecological risks from ingestion by wildlife and transfer through food webs, and how microplastics serve as vectors for pesticides, heavy metals, and chemical pollutants.

2025 Environmental Quality Management
Article Tier 2

Microplastics and environmental pollutants: Key interaction and toxicology in aquatic and soil environments

This review tracks how microplastics move through soil, water, and air ecosystems, acting as carriers for other pollutants like pesticides and heavy metals. When microplastics absorb these toxins, the combined effect on organisms can be worse than either pollutant alone. The paper highlights the need for better understanding of how these pollutant combinations affect ecosystems and ultimately human health through contaminated food and water.

2021 Journal of Hazardous Materials 520 citations