Publications

Asterisk* designates co-first authorship and an underline designates students mentored or co-mentored.

Journal Articles, Under Review

23. Jagodkin, M.E., Rochman, C.M., and Diana, Z.T. Submitted. Environmentally Relevant Concentrations of Paint Microplastics can lead to Adverse Effects on Tubifex tubifex. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry.

22. Diana, Z.T., Ford, J., Rubinovitz, R., Turner, A., Milne, M.H., Rochman, C.M. Undergoing revisions. A Paint Library of Plastic Particles (PLoPP): A spectral library, visual key, and machine learning model for paint microplastic identification. Microplastics and Nanoplastics.

21. Diana, Z.T., McGee, S., Chinglenthoiba, C., Valiyaveettil, S., Tebben, J., Harder, T., Rittschof, D. Undergoing revisions. Plastic leachates stimulate feeding responses in sea anemones. Environmental Pollution.

Journal Articles,View PDFs

20. Diana, Z.T., Swanson, M., Brown, D., Wang, J., Zhao, J., Rivera, N.A., Hsu-Kim, H., Rittschof, D., 2026. Sea anemones extract tin associated with polyvinyl chloride pre-production pellets. Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts. https://doi.org/10.1039/D6EM00110F

19. Somarelli, J.A., Diana, Z.T., Rittschof, D., Dunphy-Daly, M.M., Virdin, J., Nowlin, M., Vincoff, S., Bossa, N., Wiesner, M., Jayasundara, N., Mendis, G., Lauer, N., Eward, W.C., Arnold, J.W., 2025. A pollution crisis of synthetic plastic polymers and their hidden chemical complexity. One Earth 8, 101518. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2025.101518

18. De Frond, H., Baechler, B.R., Debreceni, S., Diana, Z.T., Fox, R., Gutierrez, R.F., Leonard, G.H., Mallos, N.J., Sherlock, C., Weller, S., Rochman, C.M., 2025. Cleanups are an important part of the solution to global plastic pollution. One Earth 8, 101281. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2025.101281

17. Diana, Z.T., Chen, Y., Rochman, C.M., 2025. Paint: a ubiquitous yet disregarded piece of the microplastics puzzle. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 44, 26–44. https://doi.org/10.1093/etojnl/vgae034

16. Diana, Z.T., Rochman, C.M., Mallos, N., 2024. UN plastic pollution treaty must not ignore the scourge of microplastics. Nature 634, 545–545. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-03360-y

15. Griffin, M.D., Diana, Z.T., Karasik, R., Dunphy-Daly, M.M., 2024. Do plastic clean-up technologies work? What research does (and doesn’t) tell us. Marine Pollution Bulletin 209, 116978. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2024.116978

14. Vincoff, S., Schleupner, B., Santos, J., Morrison, M., Zhang, N., Dunphy-Daly, M.M., Eward, W.C., Armstrong, A.J., Diana, Z., and Somarelli, J., In press. Toxicogenomic analysis of the carcinogenic potential of plastic additives. Environmental Science & Technology.

13. Diana, Z.T., Virdin, J., Nowlin, M.B., Jayasundara, N., Rittschof, D., 2024. Transdisciplinary doctoral training to address global sustainability challenges. PLOS Sustainability and Transformation 3, e0000091. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pstr.000009

12. Falk-Andersson, J., Rognerud, I., De Frond, H., Leone, G., Karasik, R., Diana, Z., Dijkstra, H., Ammendolia, J., Eriksen, M., Utz, R., Walker, T.R., Fürst, K., 2023. Cleaning Up without Messing Up: Maximizing the Benefits of Plastic Clean-Up Technologies through New Regulatory Approaches. Environmental Science & Technology acs.est.3c01885.https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.3c01885

11. Diana, Z., Virdin, J., Valiyaveettil, S., Li, H.-X., Rittschof, D., 2023. Editorial: Emerging challenges and solutions for plastic pollution. Frontiers in Marine Science 10, 1162680.https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2023.1162680

10. Diana, Z., Reilly, K., Karasik, R., Vegh, T., Wang, Y., Wong, Z., Dunn, L., Blasiak, R., Dunphy-Daly, M.M., Rittschof, D., Vermeer, D., Pickle, A., Virdin, J., 2022. Voluntary commitments made by the world’s largest companies focus on recycling and packaging over other actions to address the plastics crisis. One Earth 5, 1286–1306. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2022.10.008

9. Diana, Z., Karasik, R., Merrill, G.B., Morrison, M., Corcoran, K.A., Vermeer, D., Hepler-Smith, E., Jayasundara, N., Pare, J., Virdin, J., Eward, W.C., Somarelli, J.A., Dunphy-Daly, M.M., Rittschof, D., 2022. A transdisciplinary approach to reducing global plastic pollution. Frontiers in Marine Science 9, 1032381. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.1032381

 8. Amon, D., Metaxas, A., Stentiford, G., Escovar-Fadul, X., Walker, T.R., Diana, Z., Karathanasi, F., Voyer, M., Hemery, L., 2022. Blue economy for a sustainable future. One Earth 5, 960–963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2022.08.017

7. Diana, Z., Vegh, T., Karasik, R., Bering, J., D. Llano Caldas, J., Pickle, A., Rittschof, D., Lau, W., Virdin, J., 2022. The evolving global plastics policy landscape: An inventory and effectiveness review. Environmental Science & Policy 134, 34–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2022.03.028

 6. Ward, C.S.,* Diana, Z.,* Ke, K.M., Orihuela, B., Schultz, T.P., Rittschof, D., 2022. Microbiome Development of seawater-incubated pre-production plastic pellets reveals distinct and predictive community compositions. Frontiers in Marine Science 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.807327

 5. Fuirst, M., Ward, C.S., Schwaner, C., Diana, Z., Schultz, T.F., Rittschof, D., 2021. Compositional and functional microbiome variation between tubes of an intertidal polychaete and surrounding marine sediment. Frontiers in Marine Science 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.656506

4.‍ ‍Schmaltz, E.*, Melvin, E.C.*, Diana, Z.* Gunady, E.F., Rittschof, D., Somarelli, J.A., Virdin, J., Dunphy-Daly, M.M., 2020. Plastic pollution solutions: emerging technologies to prevent and collect marine plastic pollution. Environment International 144, 106067. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2020.106067

 3. Diana, Z., Sawickij, N., Rivera, N.A., Hsu-Kim, H., Rittschof, D., 2020. Plastic pellets trigger feeding responses in sea anemones. Aquatic Toxicology 222, 105447. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquatox.2020.105447

  • See media coverage of this research by UNC TV.

2. Turner, P.J., Ball, B., Diana, Z., Fariñas-Bermejo, A., Grace, I., McVeigh, D., Powers, M.M., Van Audenhaege, L., Maslakova, S., Young, C.M., Van Dover, C.L., 2020. Methane seeps on the US Atlantic margin and their potential importance to populations of the commercially valuable deep-sea red crab, Chaceon quinquedens. Frontiers in Marine Science 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00075

 1. So, C.R., Scancella, J.M., Fears, K.P., Essock-Burns, T., Haynes, S.E., Leary, D.H., Diana, Z., Wang, C., North, S., Oh, C.S., Wang, Z., Orihuela, B., Rittschof, D., Spillmann, C.M., Wahl, K.J., 2017. Oxidase activity of the barnacle adhesive interface involves peroxide-dependent catechol oxidase and lysyl oxidase enzymes. ACS Applied Material Interfaces 9, 11493–11505. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.7b01185