Interaction of freshwater microplastics with biota and heavy metals: a review
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REVIEW
Interaction of freshwater microplastics with biota and heavy metals: a review Nafiaah Naqash1 · Sadguru Prakash2 · Dhriti Kapoor3 · Rahul Singh1 Received: 16 March 2020 / Accepted: 23 June 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract The worldwide contamination of waters by microplastics is an emerging health and environmental issue. Despite being relatively inert, microplastics may adsorb and carry other aquatic pollutants such as heavy metals. Adsorption of heavy metals onto microplastics is a spontaneous process controlled by the microplastic surface. Marine microplastics have been well discussed, yet there are actually a few reviews on microplastics in freshwater. Here, we review microplastic contamination in freshwater systems with focus on adsorption of heavy metals. We present microplastic abundance, distribution, impact of microplastic size, affinity for heavy metals and combined toxic effects of the co-occurrence of microplastic and heavy metals. Remarkably, the concentration of metals on polystyrene and polyvinyl chloride was 800 times higher than in the surrounding environment. Combined toxic effects include endocrine disrupting and reduced predatory behavior of aquatic carnivores. Keywords Multiple stressors · Adsorption · Aquatic biota · Food chain · Co-exposure · Degradation
Introduction Omnipresence of synthetic polymers is owing to the escalation of plastic production which was commercially started in the 1950s. Only a small portion of plastic waste material is being recycled for further usage, and the rest of all the debris ends up in landfills, wastewater and aquatic systems (Tofa et al. 2019). The great threat of plastic waste is surely to the natural environment due to its accumulation in rivers and oceans where even plastic island formation was reported, e.g., the Great Pacific garbage patch (Lebreton et al. 2017). Mismanagement of plastic waste and its inconsiderable degradation may lead to environmental pollution (Padervand et al. 2020). Other than degradation, plastics are more prone to fragmentation, which results in reducing the * Rahul Singh [email protected] 1
Department of Zoology, School of Bioengineering and Biosciences, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab, India
2
Department of Zoology, M.L.K. (P.G.) College, Balrampur, UP, India
3
Department of Botany, School of Bioengineering and Biosciences, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab, India
size of plastic particle. Based on the continuous reduction in size, plastic is classified into macroplastic (> 25 mm), mesoplastic (5–25 mm), large microplastic (1–5 mm), small microplastic (20 µm–1 mm) and nanoplastic (1–1000 nm) (Gigault et al. 2018). Microplastic can be divided into primary and secondary types wherein primary microplastics are manufactured deliberately such as pellets and microbeads. It was estimated that the main contributors of primary microplastic emission to surface water are cleaning agents, paints, coatings and cosmetic products (Wezel et al. 2016). On
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