Research progress in the microplastics pollution and its effects on marine fishes with different feeding habits and habitats

As more and more microplastics are found in the marine environment and creatures, marine microplastics pollution has attracted more and more attentions. In this study, the types, distribution, toxicity and the ingestion characteristics of marine microplastics in marine fishes of different feeding habits and habitats were summarized, and the future research direction was expected. The results show that the distribution of microplastics was wide and of a great variety almost everywhere in the ocean, the vertical distribution characteristics of microplastics in the ocean was as follows: the sediment was the highest, followed by bottom and upper layers, and the middle layers were the least in the vertical direction, and the estuary zones were higher, the flow field zones were the second, oceanic zones were the least in the horizontal direction. The toxicity of microplastics mainly consists of self-toxicity and joint toxicity. Marine fishes had certain selectivity to ingest microplastics. The ingestion types and quantity of microplastics of different habitats and feeding habits marine fishes were different, and the ingestion of different habitats fishes in types were mainly related to the density of microplastics. The ingestion quantity is mainly related to the distribution of microplastics in the ocean. The ingestion of different feeding habits fishes in types and number were mainly related to the feeding habits, and it also has certain correlation with the size of fish, mouth slit and the amount of water filtrated. Microplastics could reduce the reproductive rate and increase the death rate of marine fishes. However, microplastic will be redistributed in the water after a long time of evolution, meaning the diversification of types and quantity of microplastic pollution. In the future, the fishery biology and fishery ecology, physical oceanography and marine chemistry could be combined to further understand the existence, distribution and transmission of microplastics in the ocean and its impact on marine fish and other marine creatures.