Retention and characteristics of microplastics in natural zooplankton taxa from the East China Sea

No evidence of microplastic consumption by the copepod, Temora longicornis (Müller, 1785) in Chichester Harbour, United Kingdom

“…Despite the attention being received for microplastic pollution impacts on zooplankton by the scientific community (reviewed in Botterell et al, 2019), there are limited studies of ingestion of microplastics in natural plankton communities (but see Sun et al, 2018). In particular, copepods, noted as being overwhelmingly abundant and having a pivotal position in marine food webs (Turner, 2004) and highlighted for their susceptibility to microplastic ingestion due to their typical distribution near the surface, are considered an integral link between microplastic transfer and predator and prey interactions (Setälä et al, 2016).…”

Critical Assessment of Analytical Methods for the Harmonized and Cost-Efficient Analysis of Microplastics

“…26,32 Recently, MP particles were visually identified down to 7 mm42 and 3 mm22 with a strict exclusion protocol to avoid false positives 22 or validation by spectroscopic analysis. 42 However, most studies have a lower detection limit of >100 mm and reach the upper size limit of MP at 5 mm in size. 17,18,20,28,30 The lower detection limit of light microscopy is connected to sampling and processing constraints (see Dye Staining section below), to the difficulty in following commonly used visual guidelines for small particles (<100 mm), and to the magnification of the used microscope.…”

“…In the reviewed studies, FT-IR was performed either by measuring single particles, 16,54,59, via handheld FT-IR, 137,151 by a fiber optic, 152 by using mFT-IR, 18,29,35,42,51,78,100, by applying both techniques on separate instruments, 40,50,53,66,73,78,[213][214][215][216][217][218][219][220][221][222][223][224] or referenced to other publications. 225 Larger single particles were ground with potassium bromide (KBr) for transmission measurements, targeted via diffuse reflection, or by ATR measurements.…”

Ecotoxicological effects of microplastics and adsorbed contaminants on aquatic organisms

“…Due to their physical characteristics and ubiquity in the environment, microplastics are highly bioavailable to aquatic organisms. Microplastics have been reported in zooplankton (Sun et al, 2018), molluscs (Naji et al, 2018), birds (Provencher et al, 2018), turtles (Duncan et al, 2018), fish (Hossain et al 2019;Zhu et al, 2019), mammals (Lusher et al, 2018) and other aquatic organisms (Mohsen et al, 2019 Considering the importance of ecotoxicological impact assessment knowledge regarding microplastics and adsorbed contaminants, the aim of the present study was to review, evaluate and discuss the current state of art regarding microplastic and related contaminants ecotoxicological effects in four types of organisms.…”