This open access book examines global plastic pollution an issue that has become a critical
societal challenge with implications for environmental and public health. This volume provides
a comprehensive holistic analysis on the plastic cycle and its subsequent effects on biota
food security and human exposure. Importantly global environmental change and its associated
systems-level processes including atmospheric deposition ecosystem complexity UV exposure
wind patterns water stratification ocean circulation etc. are all important direct and
indirect factors governing the fate transport and biotic and abiotic processing of plastic
particles across ecosystem types. Furthermore the distribution of plastic in the ocean is not
independent of terrestrial ecosystem dynamics since much of the plastic in marine ecosystems
originates from land and should therefore be evaluated in the context of the larger plastic
cycle. Changes in species size distribution habitat and food web complexity due to global
environmental change will likely alter trophic transfer dynamics and the ecological effects of
nano- and microplastics. The fate and transport dynamics of plastic particles are influenced by
their size form shape polymer type additives and overall ecosystem conditions. In addition
to the risks that plastics pose to the total environment the potential impacts on human health
and exposure routes including seafood consumption and air and drinking water need to be
assessed in a comprehensive and quantitative manner. Here I present a holistic and
interdisciplinary book volume designed to advance the understanding of plastic cycling in the
environment with an emphasis on sources fate and transport ecotoxicology climate change
effects food security microbiology sustainability human exposure and public policy.
