Global Coastal Hotspots and the Cascading Effect of Microplastic Burden in Marine Fish

Environmental Science & Technology 2026

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Authors: Chunhui Liu, Li Mu, Xiangang Hu, Minghui Liu, Ruiqi Wang, Qian Qu, Rui Wang, Peng Deng, Zihan Wang
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.5c17619
Cited by: 1
References: 62

Abstract

Microplastic burdens in marine fish exhibit a nonlinear relationship with environmental concentrations, yet current global-scale biological risk assessments suffer from systematic biases. We compiled a comprehensive dataset of microplastic burdens across 495 marine fish species from coastal regions worldwide, comprising 4,154 in situ measurements. By implementing an interpretable machine learning framework, we identified distinct spatiotemporal hotspot clustering patterns in fish microplastic burdens. Fish from the Sulu-Celebes Sea, Southeast Australian Shelf, and Hudson Bay exhibited microplastic burdens that were 74.14%, 56.28%, and 41.58% above the global mean, respectively. Globally, microplastic burdens (

Fields of Study & Subjects

Microplastics and Plastic Pollution Marine and coastal ecosystems Marine Bivalve and Aquaculture Studies

Publication details

Journal / source
Environmental Science & Technology
Publisher
American Chemical Society (ACS)
Volume
60
Issue
15
Pages
11665–11675
Publication date
4 April 2026
Language
EN