2026 June - 71 articles
Microplastics (MPs; <5 mm) represent a growing environmental concern that increasingly challenges environmental monitoring, governance, and evidence-based decision-making. This review critically examines how current scientific understanding of mic...
The seasonal distribution of microplastics, as a representative case, was examined in Mytilus galloprovincialis from a pilot farm in the Gulf of Naples (Italy). The influence of marine parameters on microplastic uptake rate was assessed. A destructiv...
Microplastics (MPs) have emerged as persistent environmental contaminants due to their persistence, widespread distribution, and potential risks to the environment and human health. This review focuses on the sources of MPs, their potential environme...
The pyrolysis of polypropylene (PP) microplastics offers a potential route to convert plastic waste into fuel-range hydrocarbon mixtures and chemical feedstocks. However, the elementary radical pathways underlying the formation of medium-chain hydroc...
Background: Soil mulching is a widely adopted agricultural practice known to regulate soil microclimate and enhance crop productivity; yet the biochemical mechanisms by which intact plastic and biodegradable mulch films influence soil nitrogen (N) cy...
Microplastic (MP) contamination is an emerging threat to aquatic ecosystems. However, species-specific bioaccumulation patterns across trophic guilds in tropical river ecosystems remain scarcely understood. This study assessed the occurrence, organ-l...
Microplastic contamination in coral reef environments is increasingly recognized as a global concern; however, the extent to which polymer composition can help distinguish contamination sources and transport-related processes remains poorly understoo...
Background/Objectives: Tire (or tyre) wear particles (TWPs), originating from road traffic, have been recognized as a significant emerging contaminant for terrestrial ecosystems. The aim of this study is to attempt a critical review of the existing a...
Microplastics (MPs) are routinely detected throughout wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), yet current treatment trains were not designed specifically to remove them. This study quantified and characterized visually identified MPs in influent and eff...
In recent decades, plastic consumption has risen across various industries and everyday products, leading to greater plastic use and the generation of waste, which results in the leaching of micro- and nanoplastics into the environment. This review s...
The sustainability, crop production, and food safety of agriculture are increasingly challenged by microplastic pollution, as agricultural soils are the largest reservoirs and may serve as points of contact for plastic particles in the food chain. Th...
Plastic pollution is an increasing concern in freshwater ecosystems, yet the roles of polymer chemistry, environmental context, and microbial community composition in governing degradation remain poorly resolved. This study examined plastic–mic...
Applying sludge from wastewater treatment plants to agricultural soils is a major pathway for microplastics (MPs) to reach terrestrial ecosystems, with critical implications for food and environmental safety. A longitudinal analysis (13 months) was c...
Microplastics constitute an emerging contaminant of major concern in Latin America, where human exposure predominantly occurs through ingestion of drinking water and marine/estuarine food chains. This review synthesises available evidence on occurren...
Atmospheric microplastics are increasingly recognized as emerging contaminants in urban air, yet evidence from Philippine cities outside Metro Manila remains limited. This study provides a preliminary roadside baseline assessment of airborne micropla...
Microplastics (MPs) in wastewater treatment plants are exposed to oxidative conditions during disinfection and advanced oxidation processes (AOPs), which can alter morphology and surface chemistry and influence interactions with coexisting contaminan...
Microplastic (MP) pollution is an emerging environmental stressor in marine ecosystems, yet its relationship with trophic ecology remains poorly understood in deep-sea environments. This study investigated MP ingestion in relation to trophic ecology...
Current knowledge on the toxic effects of microplastics (MPs) on human health relies on the extrapolation of data collected from in vivo studies. These studies, however, present limitations, as the particles used often differ from their environmental...
Microplastic pollution threatens soil health by disrupting chemical and microbial balances and impairing nutrient cycling, with effects that vary depending on soil properties. The objective of this study is to determine the effects of contamination w...
Following discussions between the Editorial Board and the authors, the original published references 15, 61, and 175 and their citations in the original publication [...]
The scientific literature lacks sufficient data on the transport of various toxic pollutants by polymer particles. Investigating how the structure of microplastic particles formed during the degradation of polymeric materials affects pollutant sorpti...
Microplastic pollution has become a significant environmental concern due to its persistence and widespread impact across ecosystems. These plastic particles (1 μm to 5 mm), originating from larger plastic debris or industrial sources, accumulate...
Microplastic pollution has become a global concern due to its widespread impacts on organisms and ecosystems. While there have been a few studies quantifying microplastics in inland areas of Puerto Rico, none, to our knowledge, have studied nearshore...
Micro and nanoplastics (MNPs) are increasingly recognized as contaminants in food systems; however, the specific packaging elements responsible for particle release remain poorly resolved. Most studies treat packaging as a single material category, w...
Plastic pellet spills are a growing environmental concern, yet response strategies remain limited and poorly adapted. This study evaluates whether existing oil spill recovery tools, including booms, skimmers, and specialized vessels, can be repurpose...
Microplastic pollution is a pervasive and ecologically significant threat to aquatic systems. Zooplankton, as key mediators of energy transfer and carbon cycling, are particularly vulnerable to microplastic ingestion due to size overlap with natural...
Microplastics have emerged as a major environmental health concern due to their environmental persistence, fragmentation, and widespread distribution. Conventional adsorption strategies often have limited efficiency, reuse, and scalability, and may g...
Microplastic contamination in wetland ecosystems is an escalating environmental threat, compromising ecosystem services, biogeochemical cycling and biodiversity conservation. This study assessed the occurrence, distribution and physicochemical charac...
Microplastics (MPs) are increasingly detected environmental contaminants in both marine and freshwater ecosystems, with reported concentrations ranging from a few to thousands of particles per cubic meter depending on location and methodology. Althou...
The widespread release of microplastics (MPs), especially fibrous microplastics (FMPs) originating from synthetic textiles, poses a growing threat to environmental systems due to their persistence, mobility, and potential for bioaccumulation in aquat...
This study investigates the distribution and concentration of microplastics (MPs) across the littoral profile of a beach, from dune base to offshore sector, including an estuarine channel and Sabellaria alveolata bioconstructions. The research was co...
Sunlight-driven UV weathering is a major transformation pathway of environmental microplastics, promoting surface oxidation, molecular degradation, embrittlement, and progressive fragmentation toward smaller size fractions. However, comparisons acros...
This study highlights the strong ability of a new bacterial strain, Hafnia paralvei UUNT_MP29, isolated from the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of common carp (Cyprinus carpio), to break down polystyrene (PS). As an omnivorous bottom feeder, C. carpio...
Detection and quantification of microplastics are undermined by the absence of appropriate methods in some contexts—such as a statistically principled LOD for particle-count data—but more pervasively by the uncritical application of osten...
Soils are increasingly affected by microplastic (MP) contamination, mainly coming from industrial activities, agricultural practices, atmospheric or waterborne transport, and improper waste disposal. Despite the increasing attention to the fate of MP...
Plastics are now ubiquitous in the environment, in this, the “Plasticene” era. Microplastics (MPs) and Nanoplastics (NPs) are emerging contaminants of global concern. This systematic review, registered on PROSPERO and conducted according...
There are currently no published methods for the controlled introduction of microplastic particles into the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) as an animal model. The aim of this pilot study was to establish a novel rabbit-based experimental mod...
Micro- and nanoplastic (MNP) pollution has emerged as a global environmental and health concern, driving the rapid development of sensor technologies for faster, more sensitive, and field-deployable detection. This review synthesizes recent advances...
Soil micro- and nanoplastic contamination is escalating globally, yet its potential to interfere with routine agrochemical analyses remains poorly quantified. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) were calibrated for natural soil matrices and may not...
Many filter-feeding invertebrates consume microplastics (MP) under laboratory conditions, but little is known about newly settled, field-collected juveniles. To address this information gap, we collected 3439 juvenile invertebrates in the Indian Rive...
Microplastic pollution is a major environmental concern due to its persistence, global distribution, and potential impacts on ecosystems and human health. This systematic review, conducted according to PRISMA 2020 guidelines, analyzes research trends...
Introduction: Microplastic (MP) contamination can endanger marine ecosystems and indirectly affect the well-being of humans through the ingestion of marine species. While most research investigates the digestive system, such as the gills and gastroin...
Microplastics (MPs) in water treatment plants (WTPs) represent a critical environmental concern, particularly when treated effluent is reused for agricultural irrigation. This study investigates the occurrence, removal efficiency, and characterizatio...
With the global increase in microplastic pollution, even environments considered pristine have shown signs of being affected by these contaminants. In this context, it becomes essential to conduct studies that identify and quantify the presence of mi...
Rising plastic production worldwide is contributing to the increasing amounts of micro- and nanoplastics found in the environment. The consumption of microplastics by humans is plausible due to the presence of plastic particles in various food commod...
Blended polyester (PET)-based textiles comprise a significant portion of post-consumer waste, posing substantial challenges to circular economy initiatives while contributing to microfiber (MF) pollution. Despite the considerable recycling potential...
Plastic waste is estimated to represent 40–80% of the total amount of marine litter, with polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) being the most abundant polymeric components. The recovery and recycling of marine plastic debris are therefore e...
Microplastics (MPs), i.e., plastic particles <5 mm, and nanoplastics (NPs), i.e., plastic particles <1 µm, are widespread in the environment. MPs and NPs (MNPs) have also been detected in human tissues. Environmental MNPs exhibit diverse...
This study investigates the sorption process of selected pollutants, namely naphthalene (NAP), pentachlorophenol (PCP), sulfamethoxazole (SMX), and ibuprofen (IBU), onto different real microplastics (MPs) under controlled laboratory conditions. Sorpt...
Introduction: It is accepted that nano- and micro-plastic (NMP) pollutants threaten ecosystems and human health by their bioaccumulation but, interestingly, their toxicity is shape-dependent. However, a clear definition of irregular NMPs, as the domi...
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