This reference work presents an authoritative review of microplastics as vectors of environmental contaminants and provides a comprehensive coverage of their ecotoxicological and toxicological effects. Divided into four sections, this book outlines the current analytical techniques and applications for sampling, processing analysis, and data reporting of microplastics pollution in the environment, explores microplastics degradation and interaction with chemical pollutants, discusses the fate and behaviour of microplastics in the environment, and provides valuable insights about prevention, regulation and remediation of microplastics pollution.
Written by interdisciplinary expert academics and practitioners, this reference work will appeal to a wide readership of students, researchers and professionals interested in this field, including marine scientists, environmental scientists, analytical chemists, organic chemists, biochemists, biologists, polymer scientists, and toxicologists.
About the Author: Teresa Rocha-Santos has graduated in Analytical Chemistry (1996), obtained a PhD in Chemistry (2000) and an Aggregation in Chemistry (2018), both at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. In 2001, she was awarded with a prize for her PhD studies in the area of urban environment. She was an Assistant Professor at Instituto Piaget from 2000 to 2009. During the period of 2000 to 2009 she was the coordinator of environmental chemistry graduation course (5-year degree) at Instituto Piaget. She was also an Associate Professor at Instituto Piaget (from 2009 to 2014) and the leader of the Research Unit on Exact and Bioecologic Sciences (from 2007 to 2014). Presently, she is a Principal Researcher at Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM) & Department of Chemistry of University of Aveiro (since 2014) and the Coordinator of CESAM Environmental Contaminants Assessment and remediation laboratory (since 2018). Her research concentrates on the development of new analytical methodologies fit for purpose and on the study of emerging contaminants (such as microplastics) fate and behaviour in the environment and during wastewater treatment. She published 135 scientific papers (Oct 2018). She is the editor of 7 Books. She is a member of the editorial board of Current Opinion in Environmental Science and Health, Elsevier (since 2017), Data in brief, Elsevier (since 2018), Science of the Total Environment, Elsevier (since 2018), Sensors, Mdpi (since 2018), Molecules, Mdpi (since 2018), Associate Editor of Euro-Mediterranean Journal for Environmental Integration, Springer (since 2016), and Guest Associate Editor of Frontiers in Chemistry (since 2018).
Monica Costa: BSc in Oceanography (UERJ, 1988). MPhil in Analytical Chemistry / Marine Chemistry (PUC-Rio, 1991). PhD in Environmnetal Sciences (ENV-UEA Norwich UK, 1997). Full Professor in Chemical Oceanography and Marine Pollution at Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), where she is based since 1998. Teaching and research interests are: Chemical Oceanography and Marine Pollution. Also involved in reserach and formation of BSc, MPhil and PhD students in Intergated Coastal Zone Management and water quality; plastic marine debris; chemical contamination of water, sediments and biota at coastal and marine systems; aquatic toxicology; oil/tar pollution on beaches and; environmnetal education in coastal and marine issues, including collaborations with traditional populations.
Catherine Mouneyrac is professor in marine ecotoxicology at the Université Catholique de l'Ouest (UCO, France). She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in animal physiology, aquatic ecology and ecotoxicology. She gained her PhD from the University of Lyon I (France) in physiology of fish nutrition, and then a DSc in aquatic ecotoxicology from the University of Nantes (France). She is the Dean of the Faculty of Sciences and the head of the emerging contaminants research team of the MMS (Sea, Molecules, Health) laboratory (UCO, University of Nantes, Le Mans University). Her general field research concerns the response of aquatic organisms to natural and chemical stress. She is actively involved in research to elucidate the mechanisms involved in potential toxicity by emerging contaminants (nanomaterials, endocrine disruptors, micro-nanoplastics) towards estuarine and marine organisms. At the interface of fundamental and applied research, she aims to fulfill the gap between ecological (bio indicators) and ecotoxicological (biomarkers) approaches, the final objective being to help environmental diagnosis. More precisely, she studies biomarker tools allowing extrapolating from suborganismal responses (biochemical biomarkers, energy reserves, reproduction processes) and organismal (biological indices, behavioural biomarkers) to effects occurring at higher levels of biological organization (population). C. Mouneyrac has participated to the conception and realization of numerous national, European and international programmes. She has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters in the field of aquatic ecotoxicology.She is referee for numerous international journals on environmental pollution. She is member of different research networks in environmental pollution assessment. Dr C. Mouneyrac is part of the Expert committee on the assessment of the risks related to physical agents, new technologies and development areas and the working group "Assessment of the risks associated with nanomaterials" at the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (Anses). She has been selected as a senior decision-makers a to follow the national study course of the Institut des Hautes Etudes pour la Science et la Technologie whose supervision is the responsibility of the Ministries of Higher Education and Research and Education in France.