Guest Editors
Danae Patsiou
Hellenic Centre for Marine Research
Dr. Danae Patsiou is a Research Fellow working in the lab of Ecotoxicology at the Institute of Oceanography, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Greece. She received her PhD in nanomaterial toxicity in aquatic organisms with regards to physicochemistry in the aqueous phase from Heriot Watt University, United Kingdom. Dr Patsiou studies the toxicological effects of particles (e.g., microplastics, nanoplastics, nanomaterials) in the environment and in the lab using aquatic organisms such as zebrafish and marine organisms such as marine fish, mussels and sea urchins. Current projects include investigation of environmental contaminant adsorption on microplastics, how adsorption is changing with microplastic weathering and their toxicity under environmental relevant conditions.
Ana Isabel Catarino
Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), Ostend, Belgium
Dr. Ana Isabel Catarino is a Senior Researcher at the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ, Belgium), an interdisciplinary institution collaborating closely with academia, policymakers, educators, and the public in marine sciences. She currently leads the research team on Plastics in Local and Global Waters, exploring the impact of plastic pollution on marine ecosystems. Her research primarily investigates the combined effects of human activities on aquatic organisms, such as nano- and microplastics & climate change stressors. Dr. Catarino is also engaged in citizen science initiatives to raise public awareness on plastic pollution. She tweets at @Zebrazuli.
Collection Overview
Micro- and nanoplastics are ubiquitous pollutants resulting from the widespread use of plastic products and the fragmentation of plastic litter upon release into the environment. Their unique physicochemical properties, such as their heterogeneous nature, nano-scale size, and durability, pose challenges in extracting and detecting these particles in environmental samples and during experimental procedures that aim to assess their effects upon exposure to biota.
The lack of transparent, consistent, and standardized methodological approaches for experimentation and detection of small microplastics (1–10 μm) and nanoplastics (<1 μm) that can penetrate biological membranes has led to insufficient data reporting and incomplete risk assessment. Studies that follow environmentally relevant experimental designs are few, and even fewer simulate the environmental fate and toxicity in marine ecological conditions.
This Methods Collection welcomes the best experimental practices on exposure and environmental fate investigation to build robust risk assessment models for micro- and nano-plastics and obtain reliable data. Methods of interest include, but are not limited to, the use of marine ecotoxicological model organisms and experimental set-ups to obtain concentration-response curves based on current established frameworks for small microplastics and nanomaterials.
