Microscopic plastic (microplastic, 0.1 µm-5 mm) is a widespread pollutant impacting upon aquatic ecosystems across the globe. Environmental sampling has revealed synthetic fibers are prevalent in seawater, sediments and biota. However, microplastic fibers are rarely used in laboratory studies as they are unavailable for purchase and existing preparation techniques have limited application. To f...

Inadequate products, waste management, and policy are struggling to prevent plastic waste from infiltrating ecosystems [1, 2]. Disintegration into smaller pieces means that the abundance of micrometer-sized plastic (microplastic) in habitats has increased [3] and outnumbers larger debris [2, 4]. When ingested by animals, plastic provides a feasible pathway to transfer attached pollutants and ad...

There is increasing concern about the impacts of microplastics (<1 mm) on marine biota. Microplastics may be mistaken for food items and ingested by a wide variety of organisms. While the effects of ingesting microplastic have been explored for some adult organisms, there is poor understanding of the effects of microplastic ingestion on marine larvae. Here, we investigated the ingestion of poly...

Microplastic litter is a pervasive pollutant present in aquatic systems across the globe. A range of marine organisms have the capacity to ingest microplastics, resulting in adverse health effects. Developing methods to accurately quantify microplastics in productive marine waters, and those internalized by marine organisms, is of growing importance. Here we investigate the efficacy of using ac...

Microplastic pollution causes a major concern in the marine environment due to their worldwide distribution, persistence, and adverse effects of these pollutants in the marine ecosystem. Despite its global presence, there is still a lack of information on the effect of microplastics on marine organisms at the molecular level. Herein we demonstrated ingestion and egestion of nano- (0.05 μm) and ...

Plastics pollution in the ocean is an area of growing concern, with research efforts focusing on both the macroplastic (>5mm) and microplastic (<5mm) fractions. In the 1990 s it was recognized that a minor source of microplastic pollution was derived from liquid hand-cleansers that would have been rarely used by the average consumer. In 2009, however, the average consumer is likely to be using ...

We live in a plastic age (Thompson et al., 2009), with microplastic (typically defined as plastic particles < 5mm) becoming an increasingly appreciated aspect of environmental pollution. Research has been overwhelmingly focused on aquatic systems, especially the oceans, but there is a current shift to more strongly consider terrestrial ecosystems (Rillig, 2012; Horton et al., 2017). In particul...

Microplastic particles are ubiquitous not only in marine but also in freshwater ecosystems. However, the impacts of microplastics, consisting of a large variety of synthetic polymers, on freshwater organisms remains poorly understood. We examined the effects of two polymer mixtures on the morphology, life history and on the molecular level of the waterflea Daphnia magna (three different clones)...

Microplastic particles in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems are currently discussed as an emerging persistent organic pollutant and as acting as a vector for hydrophobic chemicals. Microplastic particles may ultimately deposit and accumulate in soil as well as marine and freshwater sediments where they can be harmful to organisms. In this study, we tested the sensitivity of natural freshwater ...