Impacts of plastic pollution in the ocean on marine species, biodiversity and ecosystems

Executive Summary Current plastic pollution Since the advent of the widespread commercial production and use of plastics (see Glossary) after the Second World War, the rate of production and the asso- ciated emission of plastic waste into the world’s oceans has grown significantly. [...] It has reached every part of the ocean, from the sea surface to the deep ocean floor, from the poles to coastlines of the most remote islands and is detectable in the smallest plankton up to the largest whale. [...] As of January 2021, the extraction of data temporal distribution of litter pollution and its from the studies, which had been published by impacts on organisms, in order to communicate the end of 2019 was completed, and the update scientific knowledge to the general public. [...] In turn, the interest of the media, public and de- cision-makers has grown tremendously, with plastic pollution now being one of the foremost reported global environmental issues in the press and internet (Prata et al., 2019; Völker et al., 2020; Walther et al., 2021). [...] This report reviews the scientific literature to evaluate the impacts of plastic pollution on marine organisms, from the level of the individual (see Glossary) to the population and species level up to the level of entire ecosystems (see Glossary for definitions).