The DOI matches its Crossref record; 171 of the 172 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Ecotoxicity of microplastics to freshwater biota: Considering exposure and hazard across trophic levels
Open accessAbstract
In contrast to marine ecosystems, the toxicity impact of microplastics in freshwater environments is poorly understood. This contribution reviews the literature on the range of effects of microplastics across and between trophic levels within the freshwater environment, including biofilms, macrophytes, phytoplankton, invertebrates, fish and amphibians. While there is supporting evidence for toxicity in some species e.g. growth reduction for photoautotrophs, increased mortality for some invertebrates, genetic changes in amphibians, and cell internalization of microplastics and nanoplastics in fish; other studies show that it is uncertain whether microplastics can have detrimental long-term impacts on ecosystems. Some taxa have yet to be studied e.g. benthic diatoms, while only 12% of publications on microplastics in freshwater, demonstrate trophic transfer in foodwebs. The fact that just 2% of publications focus on microplastics colonized by biofilms is hugely concerning given the cascading detrimental effects this could have on freshwater ecosystem function. Multiple additional stressors including environmental change (temperature rises and invasive species) and contaminants of anthropogenic origin (antibiotics, metals, pesticides and endocrine disruptors) will likely exacerbate negative interactions between microplastics and freshwater organisms, with potentially significant damaging consequences to freshwater ecosystems and foodwebs.
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“The uptake of microplastics has demonstrated potential to adversely affect organisms; however, the effects observed in laboratory studies have been nonuniform across levels of biological organization and are further complicated by exposure concentration and both the physical characteristics and chemical composition of the particle (Bucci et al., 2020;Castro-Castellon et al., 2022;Zimmermann et al.”
From No Effect of Realistic Concentrations of Polyester Microplastic Fibers on Freshwater Zooplankton Communities (2024) · cites this paper as Castro-Castellon et al., 2022
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Metadata
- Authors
- Castro-Castellon, A. T., Horton, A. A., Hughes, J. M. R., Rampley, C., Jeffers, E. S., Bussi, G., & Whitehead, P.
- Affiliations
- National Oceanography Centre (GB)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Venue
- Science of The Total Environment
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022-04
- Volume
- 816
- Pages
- 151638
- ISSN
- 0048-9697 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3213435482
- Cited by
- 164
- References
- 172
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 51 · 2024: 42 · 2023: 33 · 2022: 17
- FWCI
- 1.12
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- The Science of The Total Environment (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- NERC Open Research Archive (Natural Environment Research Council) (acceptedVersion)
- ORCA Online Research @Cardiff (Cardiff University) (submittedVersion)
- Explore Bristol Research (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Funders
- Singapore Police Force
- 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
- microplastics, freshwater ecosystems, ecotoxicity, trophic transfer, biofilm, aquatic plants, phytoplankton, freshwater invertebrates, fish, amphibians, nanoplastics, food webs, multiple stressors, endocrine disruptors, benthic diatoms
- MeSH terms
- Microplastics, Animals, Environmental Monitoring, Fresh Water, Plastics, Water Pollutants, Chemical, Ecosystem, Biota
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