Microplastics: Migration, Transformation, and Impacts in Natural and Anthropogenic Settings
A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Emerging Contaminants".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2026 | Viewed by 71
Special Issue Editors
Interests: microplastics; risk amplification; transboundary governance; nanoplastics; transport mechanisms; transformation pathways
Interests: transformation pathways; plastisphere; tire and road wear particles (TRWP); anthropogenic impact; risk assessment
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue, "Microplastics: Migration, Transformation, and Impacts in Natural and Anthropogenic Settings", investigates the complex behaviors of microplastics (MPs) across environmental interfaces. It focuses on critical processes: (1) migration (e.g., hydrological transport, atmospheric dispersion, bio-mediated movement) and (2) transformation (e.g., photodegradation, biofilm adhesion, chemical weathering, interactions with co-pollutants) in diverse settings, and natural ecosystems (oceans, soils, freshwater) and human-engineered systems (wastewater plants, agricultural lands, urban infrastructure).
Purpose: The issue aims to compile cutting-edge research on MPs’ environmental fate, bridging gaps between source (anthropogenic systems), pathways, and sinks (natural reservoirs). It will advance predictive models for MP distribution, bioavailability, and risk.
Positioning: While existing literature often isolates MPs’ impacts within specific environments (e.g., marine or freshwater), this issue uniquely integrates natural and engineered systems to trace MPs’ full lifecycle, highlights understudied interfaces (e.g., soil–groundwater, WWTP–bioreactors), prioritizes transformation products (e.g., nanoplastics, pollutant-loaded MPs) and their ecotoxicological implications, and promotes cross-disciplinary methodologies (field monitoring, lab simulations, AI-driven modeling). By synthesizing mechanistic insights across environmental matrices, the issue addresses urgent knowledge gaps for evidence-based MP mitigation.
Dr. Jian Yang
Dr. Xiaona Wang
Prof. Dr. Hongzhi Ma
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- microplastics
- nanoplastics
- environmental fate
- transport mechanisms
- transformation pathways
- plastisphere
- tire and road wear particles (TRWP)
- anthropogenic impact
- risk assessment
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