Under-researched and under-reported new findings in microplastic field

Krzysztof Bohdan; Kevin C Honeychurch

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170466

Under-researched and under-reported new findings in microplastic field

Sci Total Environ. 2024 Mar 25:918:170466. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170466. Epub 2024 Jan 28.

Authors

Krzysztof Bohdan¹, Kevin C Honeychurch²

Affiliations

¹ School of Applied Sciences, University of the West of England, Bristol, Frenchay Campus, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol BS16 1QY, UK. Electronic address: krzysztof.bohdan@gmail.com.
² School of Applied Sciences, University of the West of England, Bristol, Frenchay Campus, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol BS16 1QY, UK. Electronic address: kevin.honeychurch@uwe.ac.uk.

PMID: 38286279
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170466

Abstract

After over 20 years of research on microplastic (MP) pollution, there are important areas of study which are still at the inception. In particular, between 2020 and 2023 new findings on MP have emerged, which open new sub-categories of MP research. These research areas include sea surface MP ejection, direct and indirect MP influence on climate and hydrological cycle, small and nano-sized MP analysis and the relationship between MP size and abundance. Not reported or barely mentioned in previous reviews, these globally-relevant findings are here highlighted and discussed with aim to promote their further research that will potentially result in new evidence of detrimental effects of MP pollution on the biosphere.

Keywords: Atmospheric microplastics; Emerging research in microplastic pollution; Microplastic cycle; Microplastic effects on climate; Nanoplastic analysis.