ReviewProceedings. Biological sciences2015
Linking effects of anthropogenic debris to ecological impacts.
Review in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Sublethal effects of contaminants on marine habitat-forming species: a review and meta-analysis.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2020Pooled it
- Frequency of plastic occurrence varies across phylogeny but not ecology in seabirds.Biology letters · 2026Article
- Ingested plastics reduce recruitment and survival of an Australian seabird.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Stratifying the shoreline: a modified OSPAR framework to monitor event-driven beach litter.Environmental monitoring and assessment · 2026Article
- Abundance and characteristics of anthropogenic litter along the Tanzanian shores of the African Great Lakes: including volunteer involvement, outreach, and stakeholder engagement in a holistic approach.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2025Article
- Seabirds in crisis: Plastic ingestion induces proteomic signatures of multiorgan failure and neurodegeneration.Science advances · 2025Article
- Current scenario and challenges of plastic pollution in Bangladesh: a focus on farmlands and terrestrial ecosystems.Frontiers of environmental science & engineering · 2023Review
- The Minderoo-Monaco Commission on Plastics and Human Health.Annals of global health · 2023Review
- Ecosystem-Service Scaling Techniques to Evaluate the Benefits of Marine Debris Removal.Environmental management · 2022Article
- Micro- and mesoplastics in sea surface water from a Northern Adriatic coastal area.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2022Article
- Article
- Microplastic in Sediments and Ingestion Rates in Three Edible Bivalve Mollusc Species in a Southern Philippine Estuary.Water, air, and soil pollution · 2022Article
- Review
- The costs of migration: Injuries in migratory waterbirds along the west coast of India.Saudi journal of biological sciences · 2021Article
- Multiple impacts of microplastics can threaten marine habitat-forming species.Communications biology · 2021Article
- Impact of Microplastics and Nanoplastics on Human Health.Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Plastic pollution in the marine environment.Heliyon · 2020Review
- The response of Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 to micro-/nano polyethylene particles - Investigation of a key anthropogenic stressor.PloS one · 2020Article
- Pore-size and polymer affect the ability of filters for washing-machines to reduce domestic emissions of fibres to sewage.PloS one · 2020Article
- Destabilization of polyethylene and polyvinylchloride structure by marine bacterial strain.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Accelerated contamination of habitats with debris has caused increased effort to determine ecological impacts. Strikingly, most work on organisms focuses on sublethal responses to plastic debris. This is controversial because (i) researchers have ignored medical insights about the mechanisms that link effects of debris across lower levels of biological organization to disease and mortality, and (ii) debris is considered non-hazardous by policy-makers, possibly because individuals can be injured or removed from populations and assemblages without ecological impacts. We reviewed the mechanisms that link effects of debris across lower levels of biological organization to assemblages and populations. Using plastic, we show microplastics reduce the 'health', feeding, growth and survival of ecosystem engineers. Larger debris alters assemblages because fishing-gear and tyres kill animals and damage habitat-forming plants, and because floating bottles facilitate recruitment and survival of novel taxa. Where ecological linkages are not known, we show how to establish hypothetical links by synthesizing studies to assess the likelihood of impacts. We also consider how population models examine ecological linkages and guide management of ecological impacts. We show that by focusing on linkages to ecological impacts rather than the presence of debris and its sublethal impacts, we could reduce threats posed by debris.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.