Microplastic Pollution in Marine Environment: Occurrence, Fate, and Effects (With a Specific Focus on Biogeochemical Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles)

Abstract

The pollution of microplastics is becoming increasingly serious, and rising evidence shows that the marine environment, especially sediments are major sinks of these plastics. So far, microplastic particles have been reported as widespread in large quantities in various water body and sedimentary environments such as beach, shallow coastal area, estuary, fjord, continental shelf environments, and deep-sea environments. Moreover, recent studies showed that the existence of microplastics would influence the structure and function of marine environmental microbial communities, thereby affecting the nitrogen/carbon cycling processes in marine environment especially sediments. Considering increasing microplastic pollution in marine environment especially sediment, the impact of plastics on marine ecosystems and biogeochemical cycling deserves in-depth investigation. Therefore, in the present study, information on occurrences and fate of microplastic particles in different marine environments, and their effects, mainly on marine ecosystems and biogeochemical carbon and nitrogen cycles, is reviewed.