Effects of microplastics to aquatic environment

Abstract

Plastics with their pervasive distribution are gradually becoming a global threat to the environment. Plastic items undergo slow degradation and fragmentation to smaller particles called microplastics. Microplastics can be defined as solid synthetic particles or polymer matrices with regular or irregular shape and with a size in the range of 1 µm to 5 mm. These particles are insoluble in water. The contamination of microplastic particles occurs across all ecosystems at different trophic levels. Microplastics may have direct ecotoxicological effects as well as vector effects through the adsorption of co-contaminants. These days, we deal with influence of PHB microparticles to aquatic organism Daphnia magna via acute and reproductive ecotoxicity tests.