Towards more ecologically relevant investigations of the impacts of microplastic pollution in freshwater ecosystems
Abstract
Microplastic pollution is a major environmental concern and the subject of a rapidly growing body of research. Much of this research has focused on the direct effects of microplastics on single species and there is limited information on how microplastics affect different functional groups of organisms, multi-species interactions, and ecosystem processes. We focused on freshwater systems and reviewed 146 studies of microplastic effects on freshwater biota and recorded features including particle characteristics, study designs, functional types of species tested and ecotoxicological endpoints measured. Study species were categorized based on their ecosystem role/functional feeding group rather than taxonomy. We found that most studies were conducted on single species (95%) and focused on a narrow range of functional groups of organisms (mostly filter feeders, 37% of studies). Very few studies have investigated multi-species interactions and ecosystem processes. In many studies, certain characteristics of microplastics, such as polymer type were not well matched with the feeding and habitat ecology of test species, potentially reducing their ecological relevance. Median laboratory study test concentrations were 5-6 orders of magnitude higher than those reported in the field and few studies considered the effects of chemical additives in plastics (6%). We recommend that studies addressing the ecological effects of microplastics need to address neglected functional groups of organisms, design experiments to better match the ecology of test species, and increase in experimental scale and complexity to identify any indirect effects on species interactions and ecosystem processes. We suggest that examining microplastics through an ecological lens that better integrates the feeding and habitat ecology of test organisms will advance our understanding of the effects microplastics have in the environment.
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Much of the research investigating the biological effects of microplastics has documented individual-level impacts, leaving gaps in knowledge for higher levels of biological organization.
“Much of the research investigating the biological effects of microplastics has documented individual-level impacts, leaving gaps in knowledge for higher levels of biological organization (Bucci et al., 2020;Ockenden et al., 2021).”
From No Effect of Realistic Concentrations of Polyester Microplastic Fibers on Freshwater Zooplankton Communities (2024) · cites this paper as Ockenden et al., 2021
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“Much of the research investigating the biological effects of microplastics has documented individual ‐ level impacts, leaving gaps in knowledge for higher levels of biological organization (Bucci et al., 2020; Ockenden et al., 2021).”
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- Authors
- Ockenden, A., Tremblay, L. A., Dikareva, N., & Simon, K. S.
- Affiliations
- University of Auckland (NZ)
- Venue
- Science of The Total Environment
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2021-10
- Volume
- 792
- Pages
- 148507
- ISSN
- 0048-9697 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3173374004
- Cited by
- 65
- References
- 95
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 2
- FWCI
- 0.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- Locations
- The Science of The Total Environment (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (C03X1802)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Microplastics and Plastic Pollution
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Environmental Toxicology and Ecotoxicology
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Pharmaceutical and Antibiotic Environmental Impacts
- Keywords
- microplastic pollution, freshwater ecosystems, functional feeding groups, multispecies interactions, ecosystem processes, filter feeders, polymer types, test concentration, indirect effects
- MeSH terms
- Microplastics, Environmental Monitoring, Fresh Water, Plastics, Water Pollutants, Chemical, Ecosystem
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