Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management Group, Department of Environmental Sciences , Wageningen University , P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen , The Netherlands.
Wageningen Marine Research, P.O. Box 68, 1970 AB IJmuiden , The Netherlands.
Environ Sci Technol. 2018 Aug 7;52(15):8510-8520. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.8b02515. Epub 2018 Jul 12.
We present a generic theoretical model (MICROWEB) that simulates the transfer of microplastics and hydrophobic organic chemicals (HOC) in food webs. We implemented the model for an Arctic case comprised of nine species including Atlantic cod and polar bear as top predator. We used the model to examine the effect of plastic ingestion on trophic transfer of microplastics and persistent HOCs (PCBs) and metabolizable HOCs (PAHs), spanning a wide range of hydrophobicities. In a scenario where HOCs in plastic and water are in equilibrium, PCBs biomagnify less when more microplastic is ingested, because PCBs biomagnify less well from ingested plastic than from regular food. In contrast, PAHs biomagnify more when more microplastic is ingested, because plastic reduces the fraction of PAHs available for metabolization. We also explore nonequilibrium scenarios representative of additives that are leaching out, as well as sorbing HOCs, quantitatively showing how the above trends are strengthened and weakened, respectively. The observed patterns were not very sensitive to modifications in the structure of the food web. The model can be used as a tool to assess prospective risks of exposure to microplastics and complex HOC mixtures for any food web, including those with relevance for human health.
我们提出了一个通用的理论模型（MICROWEB），用于模拟微塑料和疏水性有机化学品（HOC）在食物网中的传递。我们为一个由 9 个物种组成的北极案例实施了该模型，其中包括大西洋鳕鱼和北极熊作为顶级捕食者。我们使用该模型研究了塑料摄入对微塑料和持久性 HOC（多氯联苯）和可代谢 HOC（多环芳烃）的营养转移的影响，涵盖了广泛的疏水性范围。在塑料和水中的 HOC 达到平衡的情况下，当摄入更多的微塑料时，多氯联苯的生物放大作用较小，因为多氯联苯从摄入的塑料中生物放大的效果不如从常规食物中好。相比之下，当摄入更多的微塑料时，多环芳烃的生物放大作用更大，因为塑料减少了可代谢的多环芳烃的比例。我们还探索了代表添加剂浸出以及吸附 HOC 的非平衡情况，定量显示了上述趋势分别得到加强和减弱的程度。观察到的模式对食物网结构的修改不太敏感。该模型可用于评估任何食物网中接触微塑料和复杂 HOC 混合物的预期风险，包括与人类健康相关的风险。
