Pub Date : 2025-08-01DOI: 10.1038/s44221-025-00469-w
Hang Liu, Renqi Wang, Chengzhi Hu, Michael J. Plewa, Chao Liu
Tyre-related chemicals, which enter the aquatic environment through surface runoff, are of growing concern owing to their high ecotoxicity and ubiquitous occurrence. However, their toxicological effects in drinking water remain unknown. Here, using Chinese hamster ovary cell cytotoxicity as the metric, we found that chloramine, chlorine and ozone disinfection substantially elevated the cytotoxicity of tyre-impacted water (5.0-, 4.0- and 1.4-fold increases, respectively). These were 3.1–6.0 times as high as disinfected pristine lake waters. Toxicity correlates with halogenated (especially brominated and iodinated) products formed from reactions between additives and disinfectants based on non-target analysis. Thirty-three chemicals (for example, benzothiazoles, phenols, benzophenones and arylamines) accounting for <5% of total carbon mass and their transformation products contributed to 25–36% of the cytotoxicity of disinfected tyre-impacted water. The cytotoxicity of drinking water could be substantially elevated in extreme precipitation events. This research advances our understanding of toxicological effects from tyre-related chemicals for drinking-water sources with intensive tyre particle impact, suggesting the need for pretreatment strategies and environmentally benign tyre additives. Although tyre-related chemicals are raising concerns, information about their toxicity after water disinfection is still lacking. Data on Chinese hamster ovary cell cytotoxicity now show that chloramine, chlorine and ozone disinfection substantially elevated the cytotoxicity of tyre-impacted water.
{"title":"Unveiling the mammalian cell cytotoxicity of tyre-impacted water in disinfection","authors":"Hang Liu, Renqi Wang, Chengzhi Hu, Michael J. Plewa, Chao Liu","doi":"10.1038/s44221-025-00469-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-025-00469-w","url":null,"abstract":"Tyre-related chemicals, which enter the aquatic environment through surface runoff, are of growing concern owing to their high ecotoxicity and ubiquitous occurrence. However, their toxicological effects in drinking water remain unknown. Here, using Chinese hamster ovary cell cytotoxicity as the metric, we found that chloramine, chlorine and ozone disinfection substantially elevated the cytotoxicity of tyre-impacted water (5.0-, 4.0- and 1.4-fold increases, respectively). These were 3.1–6.0 times as high as disinfected pristine lake waters. Toxicity correlates with halogenated (especially brominated and iodinated) products formed from reactions between additives and disinfectants based on non-target analysis. Thirty-three chemicals (for example, benzothiazoles, phenols, benzophenones and arylamines) accounting for <5% of total carbon mass and their transformation products contributed to 25–36% of the cytotoxicity of disinfected tyre-impacted water. The cytotoxicity of drinking water could be substantially elevated in extreme precipitation events. This research advances our understanding of toxicological effects from tyre-related chemicals for drinking-water sources with intensive tyre particle impact, suggesting the need for pretreatment strategies and environmentally benign tyre additives. Although tyre-related chemicals are raising concerns, information about their toxicity after water disinfection is still lacking. Data on Chinese hamster ovary cell cytotoxicity now show that chloramine, chlorine and ozone disinfection substantially elevated the cytotoxicity of tyre-impacted water.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"3 8","pages":"902-912"},"PeriodicalIF":24.1,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145123094","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-31DOI: 10.1038/s44221-025-00470-3
Sitao Liu, Liang Wu
Engineered wood electrodes combined with pulsed electrochemistry enable efficient hydrogen peroxide generation and iron cycling from ambient air. This strategy greatly improves electro-Fenton stability, energy efficiency and pollutant removal in scalable wastewater treatment systems.
{"title":"Electro-Fenton with a wooden core","authors":"Sitao Liu, Liang Wu","doi":"10.1038/s44221-025-00470-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-025-00470-3","url":null,"abstract":"Engineered wood electrodes combined with pulsed electrochemistry enable efficient hydrogen peroxide generation and iron cycling from ambient air. This strategy greatly improves electro-Fenton stability, energy efficiency and pollutant removal in scalable wastewater treatment systems.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"3 8","pages":"850-851"},"PeriodicalIF":24.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145123261","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-21DOI: 10.1038/s44221-025-00476-x
Authors of manuscripts submitted from August 2025 will be able to elect for the review reports and rebuttal letters to be published with their papers.
2025年8月以后投稿的作者可选择随论文发表的评审报告和反驳信。
{"title":"Transparent peer review coming to Nature Water","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s44221-025-00476-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-025-00476-x","url":null,"abstract":"Authors of manuscripts submitted from August 2025 will be able to elect for the review reports and rebuttal letters to be published with their papers.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"3 7","pages":"748-748"},"PeriodicalIF":24.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s44221-025-00476-x.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145122977","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-21DOI: 10.1038/s44221-025-00475-y
Micro- and nanoplastics dispersed in the environment can affect entire ecosystems. It’s time to reach an international agreement to contain plastic contamination and avert dramatic consequences.
{"title":"The not-so-hidden threats of plastic pollution","authors":"","doi":"10.1038/s44221-025-00475-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-025-00475-y","url":null,"abstract":"Micro- and nanoplastics dispersed in the environment can affect entire ecosystems. It’s time to reach an international agreement to contain plastic contamination and avert dramatic consequences.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"3 7","pages":"747-747"},"PeriodicalIF":24.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s44221-025-00475-y.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145122976","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-17DOI: 10.1038/s44221-025-00457-0
Xiwen Wang, Kun Shi
Identifying large-scale patterns from the attributes of individual lakes is a central yet often overlooked challenge in limnology. A new framework for lake hypsography at various spatial scales through aggregation of individual lake hypsographies offers a pathway to address this issue.
{"title":"Integrating hypsography for large-scale lake analysis","authors":"Xiwen Wang, Kun Shi","doi":"10.1038/s44221-025-00457-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-025-00457-0","url":null,"abstract":"Identifying large-scale patterns from the attributes of individual lakes is a central yet often overlooked challenge in limnology. A new framework for lake hypsography at various spatial scales through aggregation of individual lake hypsographies offers a pathway to address this issue.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"3 7","pages":"751-752"},"PeriodicalIF":24.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145122975","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-17DOI: 10.1038/s44221-025-00461-4
Cristian Gudasz, Dominic Vachon, Yves T. Prairie
As climate change and nutrient pollution intensify, understanding how millions of lakes will respond to such forcings as a global or regional collective has become urgent and yet capturing their role in Earthʼs system remain neither conceptually unified nor empirically constrained. Here we introduce a framework that aggregates individual lake hypsography and functional attributes into composite lakes globally, across climate zones or 1-degree Earth system grid cells. We find that globally, lake shape mirrors land rather than ocean, with shallow areas dominating. This structure reveals systematic differences between glaciated and non-glaciated regions and between colder and warmer climate zones. At the 1-degree Earth system grid cells, composite lakes group into five distinct clusters. Globally, an estimated 43% of lake volume and sediment surface area lie within the mixed layer. A composite mixed layer volume-to-sediment-surface-area ratio reveals dominant water column influence and biogeochemical sensitivities, with strong contrasts across climates and glacial histories. The proposed framework advances quantifying and understanding the collective role of lakes across spatial scales in Earthʼs system. This Analysis presents a new framework that integrates lake hypsography and functional attributes at global and climatic scales, revealing key patterns in lake ecosystems and their responses to climate impacts.
{"title":"A comprehensive framework for integrating lake hypsography and function on a global scale","authors":"Cristian Gudasz, Dominic Vachon, Yves T. Prairie","doi":"10.1038/s44221-025-00461-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-025-00461-4","url":null,"abstract":"As climate change and nutrient pollution intensify, understanding how millions of lakes will respond to such forcings as a global or regional collective has become urgent and yet capturing their role in Earthʼs system remain neither conceptually unified nor empirically constrained. Here we introduce a framework that aggregates individual lake hypsography and functional attributes into composite lakes globally, across climate zones or 1-degree Earth system grid cells. We find that globally, lake shape mirrors land rather than ocean, with shallow areas dominating. This structure reveals systematic differences between glaciated and non-glaciated regions and between colder and warmer climate zones. At the 1-degree Earth system grid cells, composite lakes group into five distinct clusters. Globally, an estimated 43% of lake volume and sediment surface area lie within the mixed layer. A composite mixed layer volume-to-sediment-surface-area ratio reveals dominant water column influence and biogeochemical sensitivities, with strong contrasts across climates and glacial histories. The proposed framework advances quantifying and understanding the collective role of lakes across spatial scales in Earthʼs system. This Analysis presents a new framework that integrates lake hypsography and functional attributes at global and climatic scales, revealing key patterns in lake ecosystems and their responses to climate impacts.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"3 7","pages":"818-830"},"PeriodicalIF":24.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12279543/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144700614","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Electro-Fenton technology holds great promise for wastewater treatment but is constrained by the high cost of electrodes, high-purity oxygen input, rapid catalyst loss and sludge generation. Here we present a low-cost and self-supporting wooden electrode with pulsed excitation of ambient air and Fe3+ reduction, overcoming all the above issues in electro-Fenton processes. The electrode was fabricated via controlled wood delignification and carbonization, transforming into a self-supporting porous and functionalized architecture for efficient oxygen capture from air and two-electron reduction to H2O2. Periodic positive voltage pulses restored iron species from the electrode for in situ generation of radicals, minimizing surface iron accumulation and securing periodical electrode refreshing. A scaled-up system maintains a long-term operation in 30 days for bisphenol A removal without a performance loss at a low energy consumption of 0.013 kWh per gram of bisphenol A. This wooden-pulsed electro-Fenton system provides a low-cost and sustainable solution to practical wastewater treatment. The pulsed electrochemical method, combined with a wood-based electrode, enables the simultaneous reduction of oxygen to generate hydrogen peroxide and the regeneration of Fe3+ to active Fe2+ for radical production. This approach offers a cost-effective and sustainable electro-Fenton process for wastewater treatment.
{"title":"Pulse-driven electrocatalysis with engineered wooden electrode for high-efficiency, energy-saving and sustainable water treatment","authors":"Shuang Zhong, Hongyu Zhou, Shiying Ren, Kunsheng Hu, Wei Ren, Junwen Chen, Zhong-Shuai Zhu, Xiaoguang Duan, Shaobin Wang","doi":"10.1038/s44221-025-00466-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-025-00466-z","url":null,"abstract":"Electro-Fenton technology holds great promise for wastewater treatment but is constrained by the high cost of electrodes, high-purity oxygen input, rapid catalyst loss and sludge generation. Here we present a low-cost and self-supporting wooden electrode with pulsed excitation of ambient air and Fe3+ reduction, overcoming all the above issues in electro-Fenton processes. The electrode was fabricated via controlled wood delignification and carbonization, transforming into a self-supporting porous and functionalized architecture for efficient oxygen capture from air and two-electron reduction to H2O2. Periodic positive voltage pulses restored iron species from the electrode for in situ generation of radicals, minimizing surface iron accumulation and securing periodical electrode refreshing. A scaled-up system maintains a long-term operation in 30 days for bisphenol A removal without a performance loss at a low energy consumption of 0.013 kWh per gram of bisphenol A. This wooden-pulsed electro-Fenton system provides a low-cost and sustainable solution to practical wastewater treatment. The pulsed electrochemical method, combined with a wood-based electrode, enables the simultaneous reduction of oxygen to generate hydrogen peroxide and the regeneration of Fe3+ to active Fe2+ for radical production. This approach offers a cost-effective and sustainable electro-Fenton process for wastewater treatment.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"3 8","pages":"890-901"},"PeriodicalIF":24.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145123157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-15DOI: 10.1038/s44221-025-00460-5
Christopher C. Oates, Khara Grieger, Ryan Emanuel, Natalie G. Nelson
This study investigates whether active water quality monitoring stations are proportionately distributed across communities of varying social vulnerability. We specifically focus on nutrient monitoring of surface waters in the South Atlantic-Gulf region, a water-rich area with wide-ranging land uses and communities that span the social vulnerability spectrum. We used 2018–2022 data from the US Water Quality Portal to compare station locations to metrics from the US Centers for Disease Control Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) and hydrography from the US Geological Survey. Statistical analyses revealed a substantial imbalance in the distribution of active monitoring station placements, with more monitoring stations in lower vulnerability areas and fewer in high vulnerability areas, and patterns that vary by state. Stations were clustered in areas of similar SVI values; areas were less likely to be monitored if they were near tracts with differing SVI values. Water quality monitoring stations are crucial to ensure a timely response to any problem emerging across water resource networks. A study of nutrient monitoring of surface waters in the South Atlantic-Gulf region shows an inhomogeneous monitoring station distribution, with fewer stations in highly vulnerable areas.
{"title":"Surface waters in socially vulnerable areas are disproportionately under-monitored for nutrients in the US South Atlantic-Gulf region","authors":"Christopher C. Oates, Khara Grieger, Ryan Emanuel, Natalie G. Nelson","doi":"10.1038/s44221-025-00460-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-025-00460-5","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigates whether active water quality monitoring stations are proportionately distributed across communities of varying social vulnerability. We specifically focus on nutrient monitoring of surface waters in the South Atlantic-Gulf region, a water-rich area with wide-ranging land uses and communities that span the social vulnerability spectrum. We used 2018–2022 data from the US Water Quality Portal to compare station locations to metrics from the US Centers for Disease Control Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) and hydrography from the US Geological Survey. Statistical analyses revealed a substantial imbalance in the distribution of active monitoring station placements, with more monitoring stations in lower vulnerability areas and fewer in high vulnerability areas, and patterns that vary by state. Stations were clustered in areas of similar SVI values; areas were less likely to be monitored if they were near tracts with differing SVI values. Water quality monitoring stations are crucial to ensure a timely response to any problem emerging across water resource networks. A study of nutrient monitoring of surface waters in the South Atlantic-Gulf region shows an inhomogeneous monitoring station distribution, with fewer stations in highly vulnerable areas.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"3 7","pages":"831-840"},"PeriodicalIF":24.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145122979","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-14DOI: 10.1038/s44221-025-00463-2
Ricardo Rubio, Sara E. Grineski, Timothy W. Collins, Daniel E. Adkins, Yolanda J. McDonald
Plumbing poverty remains an issue in parts of the United States, including the US–Mexico borderlands. Previous research has suffered from data limitations including reliance on area-level data and small sample sizes. We address these limitations with American Community Survey restricted microdata. These individual- and household-level data permit us to assess social inequalities, including those related to intra-household demographic heterogeneity, in an incomplete plumbing border-wide analysis in the United States and by residence in a colonia (informal peri-urban settlements) versus non-colonia. We use restricted individual and household data for 2015–2019 (n = 145,500) with fine-scale geographic identifiers to locate households within/outside community water system and colonia boundaries. We employed multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression models. Half a percent of households had incomplete plumbing. Households without any non-Latinx white member and those with only foreign-born non-citizen members had greater odds of incomplete plumbing. Non-English-proficient households were more likely to experience incomplete plumbing. Additionally, incomplete plumbing was associated with disability, working age, poverty and home ownership. There were more inequalities outside of colonias than within them. This Article documents the unequal nature of plumbing poverty in the borderlands. Future initiatives and planning efforts must consider the specific inequalities experienced there to reduce plumbing poverty in the region. Incomplete plumbing affects over a million people in the USA. Analysis of individual and household data for the 2015–2019 period from the US–Mexico border reveals the unequal nature of plumbing poverty in the borderlands and provides insight for future planning.
{"title":"Micro-level inequalities in plumbing completeness along the US–Mexico borderlands","authors":"Ricardo Rubio, Sara E. Grineski, Timothy W. Collins, Daniel E. Adkins, Yolanda J. McDonald","doi":"10.1038/s44221-025-00463-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-025-00463-2","url":null,"abstract":"Plumbing poverty remains an issue in parts of the United States, including the US–Mexico borderlands. Previous research has suffered from data limitations including reliance on area-level data and small sample sizes. We address these limitations with American Community Survey restricted microdata. These individual- and household-level data permit us to assess social inequalities, including those related to intra-household demographic heterogeneity, in an incomplete plumbing border-wide analysis in the United States and by residence in a colonia (informal peri-urban settlements) versus non-colonia. We use restricted individual and household data for 2015–2019 (n = 145,500) with fine-scale geographic identifiers to locate households within/outside community water system and colonia boundaries. We employed multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression models. Half a percent of households had incomplete plumbing. Households without any non-Latinx white member and those with only foreign-born non-citizen members had greater odds of incomplete plumbing. Non-English-proficient households were more likely to experience incomplete plumbing. Additionally, incomplete plumbing was associated with disability, working age, poverty and home ownership. There were more inequalities outside of colonias than within them. This Article documents the unequal nature of plumbing poverty in the borderlands. Future initiatives and planning efforts must consider the specific inequalities experienced there to reduce plumbing poverty in the region. Incomplete plumbing affects over a million people in the USA. Analysis of individual and household data for the 2015–2019 period from the US–Mexico border reveals the unequal nature of plumbing poverty in the borderlands and provides insight for future planning.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"3 7","pages":"793-805"},"PeriodicalIF":24.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145122980","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-11DOI: 10.1038/s44221-025-00464-1
Xuran Liu, Wei Wei, Zhijie Chen, Lan Wu, Haoran Duan, Min Zheng, Dongbo Wang, Bing-Jie Ni
Micro(nano)plastics (MNPs) are pervasive in global water sources, posing indirect threats to water quality by disrupting biogeochemical cycles, facilitating pathogen dispersion and interacting with emerging contaminants. Here we delve into the intricate ways in which MNPs affect nutrient sequestration, essential element adsorption and microbial functions, consequently impacting the carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur cycles in aquatic environments. MNPs act as carriers for pathogens, potentially exacerbating transmission risks and endangering both aquatic ecosystems and human health. Moreover, their synergy with emerging contaminants amplifies contaminant persistence and bioavailability, warranting a deeper understanding of these implications for water security. We outline strategies for assessing the contributions of MNPs and implementing regulatory frameworks to mitigate their indirect effects. To manage these interactions under fluctuating environmental variables, advanced water treatment, modular control strategies, and early warning are essential. A holistic approach involving research, innovation and policy is imperative to protect water quality from MNPs-related impacts. Micro- and nanoplastics indirectly threaten water quality by disrupting biogeochemical cycles, transporting pathogens and interacting with emerging contaminants. This Review highlights their complex environmental roles and outlines regulatory and technological strategies to mitigate their impacts on aquatic ecosystems and water health.
{"title":"The threats of micro- and nanoplastics to aquatic ecosystems and water health","authors":"Xuran Liu, Wei Wei, Zhijie Chen, Lan Wu, Haoran Duan, Min Zheng, Dongbo Wang, Bing-Jie Ni","doi":"10.1038/s44221-025-00464-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s44221-025-00464-1","url":null,"abstract":"Micro(nano)plastics (MNPs) are pervasive in global water sources, posing indirect threats to water quality by disrupting biogeochemical cycles, facilitating pathogen dispersion and interacting with emerging contaminants. Here we delve into the intricate ways in which MNPs affect nutrient sequestration, essential element adsorption and microbial functions, consequently impacting the carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur cycles in aquatic environments. MNPs act as carriers for pathogens, potentially exacerbating transmission risks and endangering both aquatic ecosystems and human health. Moreover, their synergy with emerging contaminants amplifies contaminant persistence and bioavailability, warranting a deeper understanding of these implications for water security. We outline strategies for assessing the contributions of MNPs and implementing regulatory frameworks to mitigate their indirect effects. To manage these interactions under fluctuating environmental variables, advanced water treatment, modular control strategies, and early warning are essential. A holistic approach involving research, innovation and policy is imperative to protect water quality from MNPs-related impacts. Micro- and nanoplastics indirectly threaten water quality by disrupting biogeochemical cycles, transporting pathogens and interacting with emerging contaminants. This Review highlights their complex environmental roles and outlines regulatory and technological strategies to mitigate their impacts on aquatic ecosystems and water health.","PeriodicalId":74252,"journal":{"name":"Nature water","volume":"3 7","pages":"764-781"},"PeriodicalIF":24.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145122974","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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