Ocean Acidification

Highlights

• Climate driven processes intensify microplastic fragmentation and redistribution.
• Microplastics disrupt carbon cycling and climate sensitive ocean processes.
• Warming acidification and ice melt amplify microplastic impacts on marine biota.
• Polar ice acts as a major reservoir and emerging source of legacy microplastics.
• Integrating microplastics into climate policy is critical for ocean resilience.

Abstract

Microplastics (MPs) pollution and climate change are now recognized as two pervasive and interacting stressors reshaping marine ecosystems, yet their combined effects remain insufficiently integrated within marine pollution research. This review synthesizes current global evidence on how climate-driven processes modulate the sources, transport, fate, and ecological impacts of MPs, and how MPs in turn influence climate-linked ocean processes. A systematic literature review was conducted following PRISMA principles, drawing on peer-reviewed studies retrieved from major scientific databases without temporal restriction. A total of 205 publications included for qualitative synthesis. The results demonstrate that ocean warming, acidification, sea-ice melt, extreme weather events, and altered circulation patterns intensify MP fragmentation, redistribution, and bioavailability across marine environments. Warming accelerates polymer degradation and enhances biological interactions, acidification alters surface chemistry and toxicity, and polar ice melt releases large reservoirs of legacy MPs into vulnerable ecosystems. Evidence further shows that MPs disrupt key climate-related processes, including primary productivity, nutrient cycling, and the biological carbon pump, thereby creating feedbacks that may weaken oceanic climate regulation. Combined exposure to MPs and climate stressors amplifies physiological stress, reduces growth and reproductive performance, and compromises resilience across multiple trophic levels. These findings highlight that MPs are not passive contaminants but active modifiers of climate-sensitive marine systems. Integrating MP dynamics into climate research, monitoring frameworks, and policy instruments is therefore essential. Addressing plastic pollution alongside climate mitigation and adaptation strategies will be critical to safeguarding marine ecosystem functioning under future global change.

Bhuyan M. S., Jenzri M., Pattanayak U. & Mardaraj P. C., 2026. Microplastics in a warming ocean with coupled climate change interactions and implications for marine ecosystem functioning. Regional Studies in Marine Science 102: 105432. doi: 10.1016/j.rsma.2026.105432. Article (subscription required).