Issue 2, 2022

Emerging investigator series: microplastic sources, fate, toxicity, detection, and interactions with micropollutants in aquatic ecosystems – a review of reviews

Abstract

Hundreds of review studies have been published focusing on microplastics (MPs) and their environmental impacts. With the microbiota colonization of MPs being firmly established, MPs became an important carrier for contaminants to step inside the food web all the way up to humans. Thus, the continuous feed of MPs into the ecosystem has sparked a multitude of scientific concerns about their toxicity, characterization, and interactions with microorganisms and other contaminants. The reports of common subthemes have agreed about many findings and research gaps but also showed contradictions about others. To unravel these equivocal conflicts, we herein compile all the major findings and analyze the paramount discrepancies among these review papers. Furthermore, we systematically reviewed all the highlights, research gaps, concerns, and future needs. The covered focus areas of MPs' literature include the sources, occurrence, fate, existence, and removal in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), toxicity, interaction with microbiota, sampling, characterization, data quality, and interaction with other co-contaminants. This study reveals that many mechanisms of MPs' behavior in aquatic environments like degradation and interaction with microbiota are yet to be comprehended. Furthermore, we emphasize the critical need to standardize methods and parameters for MP characterization to improve the comparability and reproducibility of the incoming research.

Graphical abstract: Emerging investigator series: microplastic sources, fate, toxicity, detection, and interactions with micropollutants in aquatic ecosystems – a review of reviews

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Critical Review
Submitted
24 okt 2021
Accepted
09 jan 2022
First published
10 jan 2022

Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts, 2022,24, 172-195

Emerging investigator series: microplastic sources, fate, toxicity, detection, and interactions with micropollutants in aquatic ecosystems – a review of reviews

M. Ateia, G. Ersan, M. G. Alalm, D. C. Boffito and T. Karanfil, Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts, 2022, 24, 172 DOI: 10.1039/D1EM00443C

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements