Emerging Contaminants, Planetary Health, and Water Sustainability in the Anthropocene

The rapid expansion of synthetic chemicals and plastic materials has fundamentally altered contaminant dynamics in aquatic and agro-environmental systems worldwide. Rather than occurring as isolated substances, emerging contaminants increasingly co-exist as complex mixtures of pesticides, pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, metals, and plastic-associated additives across interconnected land, freshwater, estuarine, and marine environments. Conventional monitoring and risk assessment frameworks, which often focus on single compounds, are therefore insufficient to capture the cumulative and interactive effects of these chemical cocktails. Concurrently, the widespread presence of microplastics and synthetic fibers introduces an additional layer of complexity, as these materials can act as mobile substrates facilitating contaminant transport and transformation across environmental compartments. Understanding the coupled behavior of contaminant mixtures and plastic-mediated pathways is thus critical for advancing planetary health perspectives and ensuring sustainable water management in the Anthropocene.The goal of this Research Topic is to address the growing gap between real-world contaminant complexity and conventional assessment frameworks by advancing a systems-level understanding of emerging contaminant mixtures and plastic-mediated transport across source-to-sea environments. In the Anthropocene, aquatic and agro-environmental systems are increasingly exposed to chemical cocktails rather than single substances, with microplastics and synthetic fibers acting as dynamic vectors that influence contaminant mobility, bioavailability, and combined toxicity. Yet, mixture effects and vector-driven pathways remain poorly integrated into monitoring, risk assessment, and planetary health evaluations.This Research Topic seeks to bring together interdisciplinary research that elucidates how contaminant mixtures are transported, transformed, and biologically expressed across interconnected land, freshwater, estuarine, and marine systems. By promoting integrated analytical approaches, cumulative risk frameworks, and cross-compartmental perspectives, the collection aims to move beyond single-contaminant paradigms and generate knowledge that better informs water sustainability, ecosystem protection, and human health decision-making, particularly in environmentally vulnerable regions.This Research Topic focuses on the behavior, transport, and impacts of emerging contaminant mixtures and plastic-mediated pathways across interconnected land–freshwater–estuarine–marine systems. Contributions are encouraged on themes including mixture toxicity and cumulative risk assessment; co-occurrence and combined exposure of pesticides, pharmaceuticals, PFAS, metals, and plastic additives; and the role of microplastics, fibers, and aged plastics as vectors influencing contaminant mobility, bioavailability, and transformation. Studies examining source-to-sea transport processes, cross-compartmental connectivity, and planetary or One Health implications of mixed contaminant loads are particularly welcome. The collection also encourages integrated monitoring strategies, advanced analytical techniques, modeling frameworks, and policy-relevant assessments addressing real-world chemical complexity. We welcome Original Research Articles, Reviews, Mini-Reviews, Methods papers, Perspectives, and Policy-oriented contributions. Topic editors: Priyansha Gupta, Kalyan De, Anish Kumar Warrier, Prasun Goswami Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/76584/emerging-contaminants-planetary-health-and-water-sustainability-in-the-anthropocene