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Advancement and Challenges of Microplastic Pollution in the Aquatic Environment: a Review

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Abstract

As a new persistent environmental pollutant, microplastic pollution has attracted great interest recently. Microplastic particles are distributed widely throughout the world’s freshwaters, oceans, and seas, including the water column and sediments reaching as far as the deep sea. However, the practical considerations and protocols for microplastic pollution have, to the best of our knowledge, not been reviewed properly with regard to assessing their distribution, biotoxicity, sampling, and identification in the aquatic environment. In this review, the implications of microplastic pollution, including its wide distribution, biotoxicity threats, sampling, and identification challenges in the aquatic environment, were discussed and evaluated. The challenges and perspective of the related research are also presented to identify knowledge gaps and to prioritize future research needs.

In this review, the implications of microplastic pollution, including its wide distribution, biotoxicity threats, sampling, and identification challenges in the aquatic environment, were discussed and evaluated. The challenges and perspective of the related research are also presented to identify knowledge gaps and to prioritize future research needs.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the Open Fund of Zhejiang Institute of Freshwater Fisheries (Grant No. ZJK201805), Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province, China (Grant No. LQ17C200002), and Open Fund of Huzhou Vocational and Technical College (Grant No. 2018JC01).

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  1. Yue Yu and Dongren Zhou contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Huzhou Vocational and Technical College, Huzhou, 313000, China

    Yue Yu

  2. College of Life Sciences, China Jiliang University, Hangzhou, 310018, China

    Yue Yu, Zhanming Li & Cheng Zhu

  3. Agriculture Ministry Key Laboratory of Healthy Freshwater Aquaculture, Key Laboratory of Fish Health and Nutrition of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang Institute of Freshwater Fisheries, Huzhou, 313001, China

    Dongren Zhou

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  1. Yue Yu
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  2. Dongren Zhou
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Correspondence to Zhanming Li.

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Yu, Y., Zhou, D., Li, Z. et al. Advancement and Challenges of Microplastic Pollution in the Aquatic Environment: a Review. Water Air Soil Pollut 229, 140 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-018-3788-z

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