Revisión de la contaminación por nanoplásticos y sus efectos en el medio ambiente, principalmente en los ecosistemas acuáticos.

Abstract

Plastics are now consolidated as one of the main pollutants of the environment, not only due to their wide production, but also because once converted into waste they are easily distributed around the planet, mainly in the oceans, converging in the subtropical gyres.

Contamination by nanoplastics can cause damage to the different metabolic, morphological, physiological, absorption and behavioural processes of organisms and as a consequence, their impacts can be representative at the cellular and ecosystem level; assessing the impact of these plastics on sediments and aquatic organisms is an emerging problem, as they have already been found in microalgae, fish and shellfish. However, there are large gaps in knowledge about the alterations they cause due to the lack of standardized methods. In this review, the main sources of pollution, the effects on aquatic organisms and the mechanisms involved are described and some ideas are presented about their impacts and the challenges faced by researchers.