A review by Malika Bel Hassen, Amel Bellaaj Zouari Moufida Abdennadher, Jean-Claude Assaf, Mantoura Nakad, Rami Abboud, Yosra Khammeri, Mohamed Banni, Alberto Panzeri, Leonardo Gomes and Wael Hamd
Plastic pollution has become one of the most pervasive and urgent environmental threats to marine ecosystems. The scientific review “Plastics pollution: pathways, impacts, and regulatory challenges in marine environments” offers a comprehensive synthesis of current knowledge on microplastics across oceanic regions, highlighting their sources, distribution, impacts, and the regulatory gaps that hinder effective mitigation.
Microplastics enter marine environments through multiple pathways, originating from land-based activities, river inputs, and ocean-based sources such as fisheries, aquaculture, tourism, and even extreme weather events. Despite growing research efforts, methodological and technical limitations, related to sampling, identification, quantification, and data reporting, continue to constrain our ability to estimate the true volume and distribution of microplastics across diverse marine settings.
The review shows that microplastics have spread throughout the world’s oceans, including remote and polar regions. Their spatial distribution is shaped by both their physicochemical properties and environmental transport mechanisms, such as wind-driven waves, currents, and biofouling by microorganisms. The polymers most frequently detected (polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polystyrene (PS)) represent more than 60% of microplastics recovered in different marine systems.
The ecological consequences are profound. Microplastics impact unicellular and multicellular organisms across various levels of biological organization, disrupting ecological functions, physiological processes, and even social behavior. These disturbances pose risks not only to marine biodiversity but also to human health, given the interconnectedness of oceanic and human systems.
If you want to know more about ti, read the full review here.
