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The excessive worldwide production of plastic materials results in omnipresent microplastic pollution. Scientific studies dealing with the impacts of microplastics on aquatic ecosystems focus mainly on the marine environment, documenting the effect on the functional traits of various organisms. Polystyrene, one of the most commonly used plastics, has become a widely used model in this respect. In our study, freshwater shrimps (Neocardina heteropoda) were exposed to virgin polystyrene particles (size 0.5 mm; nominal concentration 8 mgL−1), and their behavioral and physiological responses were compared to control shrimp. The exposed shrimps exhibited modified activity patterns (greater speeds, accelerations and distances moved), accompanied by a lowered standard metabolic rate (SMR). The observed effects differed in their progression from the 7th to 14th day of exposure, from undetectable changes (distance, SMR) to significant differences (speed, acceleration). Significant differences were also detected in the behavioral syndromes expressed by the exposed and controlled shrimps, indicating that the microplastics influence not only the particular traits, but also their functional relationships. As such, our study contributes to the integration of behavioral ecotoxicology in risk assessment, documenting the adverse performance of freshwater invertebrates exposed to microplastics with the potential to transpose the problem to higher levels of the food web.

The outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) raises questions about the effective inactivation of its causative agent, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in medical wastewater by disinfectants. For this reason, our study of wastewater from a selected hospital evaluated several different advanced oxidation methods (Fenton reaction and Fenton-like reaction and ferrate (VI)) capable of effectively removing SARS-CoV-2 RNA. The obtained results of all investigated oxidation processes, such as ferrates, Fenton reaction and its modifications achieved above 90% efficiency in degradation of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in model water. The efficiency of degradation of real SARS-CoV-2 from hospital wastewater declines in following order ferrate (VI) > Fenton reaction > Fenton-like reaction. Similarly, the decrease of chemical oxygen demand compared to effluent was observed. Therefore, all of these methods can be used as a replacement of chlorination at the wastewater effluent, which appeared to be insufficient in SARS-CoV-2 removal (60%), whereas using of ferrates showed efficiency of up to 99%.