Microplastics: Footprints On The Earth and Their Environmental Management

✍ Scribed by Ramkumar Muthuvairavasamy

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 2022
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 104
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book presents information on the origin and distribution of microplastics, evaluates the methods of their detection, documents their interactions with natural systems, and analyzes the current understanding of their management. Owing to the size, varied compositions, pathways of transport, accumulation and myriad processes of interactions with ecosystems, the microplastics pose severe threats to ecosystem services and natural environmental systems. Therefore, the environmental challenges that microplastics present and the strategies to mitigate their harmful impacts are of great importance to the scientific community, and only a few publications exist that collate this information in a single resource. The book aims to be a comprehensive resource for students, professionals and practitioners of environmental studies on microplastics and how to better understand the threats they pose and the practices to manage them. 

✦ Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Contents
About the Author
List of Figures
List of Tables
Chapter 1: Emergence of Plastic as a Pollutant
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Origin and Growth of Plastic Production
1.3 Plastics as Pollutants
Chapter 2: Types and Classifiction of Plastic Pollutants
2.1 Compositional Varieties
2.2 Types Based on Thermal Response
2.3 Modifications by Physical and Chemical Methods
2.4 Justification for Classification
2.5 Definitions and Parameters for Classification
2.5.1 Origin
2.5.2 Size
2.5.3 Shape
2.5.4 Composition
2.5.5 Color
2.5.6 Toxicity
2.6 Morphometric Genetic Classification
2.7 Notations/Codes and Application of the Classification
Chapter 3: Weathering of Plastics
3.1 Definition
3.2 Processes and Factors of Weathering
3.3 Zones of Active Weathering
Chapter 4: Transport Pathways
4.1 Current Understanding on Transport
4.2 Atmospheric Transport
4.3 Transport in the Land/Soil
4.4 Transport in the Aqueous Media
Chapter 5: Factors and Zones of Accumulation
5.1 Physical Factors
5.2 Biological Factors
5.3 Aquatic Regions
5.3.1 Inland Water Bodies
5.3.2 Coastal Zone
5.3.3 Ocean Surface and the Water Column
5.3.4 Benthic Environments
Chapter 6: Microplastics in the Atmosphere
6.1 Scant Attention on the Microplastics in the Atmosphere
6.2 Characteristics of Microplastics in the Atmosphere
6.3 Fate of Atmospheric Microplastics
Chapter 7: Microplastics in the Land and Soil
7.1 Land/Soil as Dominant Source and Sink
7.2 Distribution and Transport Within Soil Horizons
7.3 Types of Microplastics in the Soil
7.4 Impacts on Physical and Chemical Properties
7.5 Interactions with Soil Microbes
7.6 Recent Trends in Analytical Methods
7.7 Relationships of Soil Microplastics with Climate Change
Chapter 8: Microplastics in Aquatic Environments
8.1 Plastics Are Inherently Pollutants
8.2 Impacts of Size and Shape
8.3 Impact of Color and Composition
8.4 Sources of Plastic Pollutants in the Oceans
8.5 Distribution of Microplastics in the Oceans
8.6 Evolution of Plastic Pollutant into the Plastisphere
Chapter 9: Microplastics in the Biotic Systems
9.1 Nature and Extent of Microplastic Exposure
9.2 Physical Factors
9.3 Chemical Factors
9.4 Biological Factors
Chapter 10: Microplastics in the Food Chain
10.1 Occurrence and Transfer in the Trophic Structure
10.2 Biomagnification
10.3 Ingestion
10.3.1 Voluntary and Involuntary Ingestion
10.3.2 Effects of Ingestion
10.4 Modes of Entry into the Human Physiological System
10.5 Translocation into the Vital Organs
Chapter 11: Geochemical Fingerprint and Stratigraphic Marker
11.1 Stratigraphic Distinction of the Present Time
11.2 Utility in Enhanced Stratigraphic Resolution
Chapter 12: Mitigation, Management, and the Challenges Ahead
12.1 Current Status
12.2 Mitigation and Management Methods
12.3 Gaps and the Challenges
References
Index