Adsorption behavior of organic pollutants on microplastics.

Plastic is one of the most commonly produced and used materials in the world due to its outstanding features. However, the worldwide use of plastics and poor waste management have led to negative impacts on ecosystems. Plastic degradation in the environment leads to the generation of plastic particles with a size of <5 mm, which are defined as microplastics (MPs). These represent a global concern due to their wide dispersion in water environments and unclear potential ecotoxicological effects. Different studies have been performed with the aim of evaluating the presence and impacts of MPs in the marine environment. However, the presence of MPs in freshwater systems is still poorly investigated, making data retrieval a difficult task. The purpose of this review is to identify the main aspects concerning MPs pollution sources in lakes and rivers, with a focus on freshwater sediments as a site of accumulation and as the habitat of benthic organisms, which are key components of food webs and play a fundamental role in energy/contaminant transfer processes, but are still poorly considered. Through this review, the sources and fate of MPs in freshwater are analysed, ecotoxicological studies focused on sediments and benthic fauna are exposed, the most frequently used sampling and analysis strategies are reported, and future trends of MPs analysis in this field are proposed.

Microplastic Contamination in Freshwater Environments: A Review, Focusing on Interactions with Sediments and Benthic Organisms

Microplastics in soils: A review of methods, occurrence, fate, transport, ecological and environmental risks.

Weathering of microplastics and interaction with other coexisting constituents in terrestrial and aquatic environments

Effects of microplastics on soil properties: Current knowledge and future perspectives.

Aging mechanism of microplastics with UV irradiation and its effects on the adsorption of heavy metals.

Fenton aging significantly affects the heavy metal adsorption capacity of polystyrene microplastics

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) in rivers is a critical regulator of the cycling and toxicity of pollutants and the behavior of DOM is a key indicator for the health of the environment. We investigated the sources and characteristics of DOM in surface water and sediment samples of the Wei River, China. Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentration and ultraviolet absorbance at 254 nm (UV254) increased in the surface water and were decreased in the sediment downstream, indicating that the source of DOM in the water differed from the sediment. Parallel factor (PARAFAC) analysis of the excitation-emission matrices (EEM) revealed the presence of terrestrial humus-like, microbial humus-like and tryptophan-like proteins in the surface water, whereas the sediment contained UVA humic-like, UVC humic-like and fulvic-like in the sediment. The DOM in the surface water and sediment were mainly derived from microbial metabolic activity and the surrounding soil. Surface water DOM displayed greater photodegradation potential than sediment DOM. PARAFAC analysis indicated that the terrestrial humic-like substance in the water and the fulvic-like component in the sediment decomposed more rapidly. These data describe the characteristics of DOM in the Wei River and are crucial to understanding the fluctuations in environmental patterns.

Mengfan Lang

Papers

Aging mechanism of microplastics with UV irradiation and its effects on the adsorption of heavy metals.

Fenton aging significantly affects the heavy metal adsorption capacity of polystyrene microplastics

Identification of sources, characteristics and photochemical transformations of dissolved organic matter with EEM-PARAFAC in the Wei River of China

Photo-transformation of microplastics and its toxicity to Caco-2 cells.