Plastic products have played significant roles in protecting people during the COVID-19 pandemic. The widespread use of personal protective gear created a massive disruption in the supply chain and waste disposal system. Millions of discarded single-use plastics (masks, gloves, aprons, and bottles of sanitizers) have been added to the terrestrial environment and could cause a surge in plastics washing up the ocean coastlines and littering the seabed. This paper attempts to assess the environmental footprints of the global plastic wastes generated during COVID-19 and analyze the potential impacts associated with plastic pollution. The amount of plastic wastes generated worldwide since the outbreak is estimated at 1.6 million tonnes/day. We estimate that approximately 3.4 billion single-use facemasks/face shields are discarded daily as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, globally. Our comprehensive data analysis does indicate that COVID-19 will reverse the momentum of years-long global battle to reduce plastic waste pollution. As governments are looking to turbo-charge the economy by supporting businesses weather the pandemic, there is an opportunity to rebuild new industries that can innovate new reusable or non-plastic PPEs. The unanticipated occurrence of a pandemic of this scale has resulted in unmanageable levels of biomedical plastic wastes. This expert insight attempts to raise awareness for the adoption of dynamic waste management strategies targeted at reducing environmental contamination by plastics generated during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Microplastics, which serve as sources and vector transport of organic contaminants in both terrestrial and marine environments, are emerging micropollutants of increasing concerns due to their potential harmful impacts on the environment, biota and human health. Microplastic particles have a higher affinity for hydrophobic organic contaminants due to their high surface area-to-volume ratio, particularly in aqueous conditions. However, recent findings have shown that the concentrations of organic contaminants adsorbed on microplastic surfaces, as well as their fate through vector distribution and ecological risks, are largely influenced by prevailing environmental factors and physicochemical properties in the aquatic environment. Therefore, this review article draws on scientific literature to discuss inherent polymers typically used in plastics and their affinity for different organic contaminants, as well as the compositions, environmental factors, and polymeric properties that influence their variability in sorption capacities. Some of the specific points discussed are (a) an appraisal of microplastic types, composition and their fate and vector transport in the environment; (b) a critical assessment of sorption mechanisms and major polymeric factors influencing organic contaminants-micro (nano) plastics (MNPs) interactions; (c) an evaluation of the sorption capacities of organic chemical contaminants to MNPs in terms of polymeric sorption characteristics including hydrophobicity, Van der Waals forces, π–π bond, electrostatic, and hydrogen bond interactions; and (d) an overview of the sorption mechanisms and dynamics behind microplastics-organic contaminants interactions using kinetic and isothermal models. Furthermore, insights into future areas of research gaps have been highlighted.

Plastic pollution is a fast-rising environmental catastrophe. Microplastics and nanoplastics (MNPs) are ubiquitous components of most aquatic environments, and their burgeoning prevalence is endangering aquatic organisms. Recent studies have documented the entanglement of marine and freshwater biota by plastic litters, particularly ghost fishing gear, resulting in suffocation, drowning, or starving to death. Numerous reports have shown that aquatic organisms readily ingest and accumulate these emerging contaminants in their digestive systems. Given experimental evidence that contaminants-laden MNPs can persist in the gastrointestinal tract for considerable durations, investigations have documented a high probability of lethal and sublethal toxicological effects associated with direct and indirect MNPs ingestions. These include chronic protein modulation, DNA damage, embryotoxicity, gastrointestinal toxicity, genotoxicity, growth inhibition toxicity, histopathotoxicity, liver toxicity, neurotoxicity, oxidative stress, reproductive toxicity, and tissue damage. Today, reports have proven the transfer of MNPs across the aquatic food web to humans. However, the mechanisms of multiple contaminants-laden MNPs-induced toxicities, size-dependent toxicity, and the comprehensive mode-of-action and alterations of digestive, reproductive, and neurological systems’ functionality in marine organisms are still unclear. Thus, this review mainly addresses the prevalence, food web interactions, and toxicity assessment of micro(nano) plastics in marine and freshwater organisms. It summarizes documented studies based on the following broad objectives: (1) the occurrence and prevalence of micro(nano) plastic particles in marine and freshwater environments; (2) the ingestion of MNPs by aquatic biota and the food web exposure routes and bioaccumulation of contaminated MNPs by higher trophic entities; (3) the adsorption and desorption of persistent organic pollutants, metals, and chemical additives on/from micro(nano)plastics; and (4) the probable ecotoxicological effects of micro(nano)plastics ingestion on aquatic biota.

The tropical Atlantic is home to multiple coupled climate variations covering a wide range of timescales and impacting societally relevant phenomena such as continental rainfall, Atlantic hurricane activity, oceanic biological productivity, and atmospheric circulation in the equatorial Pacific. The tropical Atlantic also connects the southern and northern branches of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation and receives freshwater input from some of the world’s largest rivers. To address these diverse, unique, and interconnected research challenges, a rich network of ocean observations has developed, building on the backbone of the Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic (PIRATA). This network has evolved naturally over time and out of necessity in order to address the most important outstanding scientific questions and to improve predictions of tropical Atlantic severe weather and global climate variability and change. The tropical Atlantic observing system is motivated by goals to understand and better predict phenomena such as tropical Atlantic interannual to decadal variability and climate change; multidecadal variability and its links to the meridional overturning circulation; air-sea fluxes of CO ₂ and their implications for the fate of anthropogenic CO ₂ ; the Amazon River plume and its interactions with biogeochemistry, vertical mixing, and hurricanes; the highly productive eastern boundary and equatorial upwelling systems; and oceanic oxygen minimum zones, their impacts on biogeochemical cycles and marine ecosystems, and their feedbacks to climate. Past success of the tropical Atlantic observing system is the result of an international commitment to sustained observations and scientific cooperation, a willingness to evolve with changing research and monitoring needs, and a desire to share data openly with the scientific community and operational centers. The observing system must continue to evolve in order to meet an expanding set of research priorities and operational challenges. This paper discusses the tropical Atlantic observing system, including emerging scientific questions that demand sustained ocean observations, the potential for further integration of the observing system, and the requirements for sustaining and enhancing the tropical Atlantic observing system.