Microplastics and plankton: Knowledge from laboratory and field studies to distinguish contamination from pollution

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2021

Authors

Rodrigues, SM (Author) Other; Elliott, M (Author) Other; Marisa M R Almeida (Author) FCUP; Ramos, S (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Journal of Hazardous Materials

Vol. 417

ISSN: 0304-3894

Publisher: Elsevier

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 25 Citations

Scopus - 30 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00T-YHS

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.126057

Abstract (EN): Due to their ubiquitous presence, size and characteristics as ability to adsorb pollutants, microplastics are hypothesized as causing a major impact on smaller organisms, such as plankton. Despite this, there is a need to determine whether these impacts just relate to the environmental presence of the materials or their effects on biological processes. Therefore, we aimed to 1) review current research on plankton and microplastics; 2) compare field and laboratory experimental findings, and 3) identify knowledge gaps. The systematic review showed that 70% of the 147 relevant scientific publications were from laboratory studies and microplastics interactions with plankton were recorded in 88 taxa. Field study publications were relatively scarce and the characteristics of microplastics collected in the field were very different from those used in laboratory experiments thereby limiting the comparison between studies. Our systematic review highlighted knowledge gaps in: 1) the number of field studies; 2) the non-comparability between laboratory and field conditions, and 3) the low diversity of plankton species studied. Furthermore, this review indicated that while there are many studies on contamination by microplastics, the effects of this contamination (i.e., pollution per se) have been less wellstudied, especially in the field at population, community, and ecosystem levels.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 14