State Key Lab of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China; Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1799 Jimei Road, Xiamen, 361021, China.
Environ Pollut. 2019 Apr;247:890-897. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2019.01.097. Epub 2019 Jan 26.
Microplastics (MPs) are an emerging contaminant and are confirmed to be ubiquitous in the environment. Adverse effects of MPs on aquatic organisms have been widely studied, whereas little research has focused on soil invertebrates. We exposed the soil springtail Folsomia candida to artificial soils contaminated with polyethylene MPs (<500 μm) for 28 d to explore the effects of MPs on avoidance, reproduction, and gut microbiota. Springtails exhibited avoidance behaviors at 0.5% and 1% MPs (w/w in dry soil), and the avoidance rate was 59% and 69%, respectively. Reproduction was inhibited when the concentration of MPs reached 0.1% and was reduced by 70.2% at the highest concentration of 1% MPs compared to control. The half-maximal effective concentration (EC) value based on reproduction for F. candida was 0.29% MPs. At concentrations of 0.5% dry weight in the soil, MPs significantly altered the microbial community and decreased bacterial diversity in the springtail gut. Specifically, the relative abundance of Wolbachia significantly decreased while the relative abundance of Bradyrhizobiaceae, Ensifer and Stenotrophomonas significantly increased. Our results demonstrated that MPs exerted a significant toxic effect on springtails and can change their gut microbial community. This can provide useful information for risk assessment of MPs in terrestrial ecosystems.
微塑料（MPs）是一种新兴的污染物，已被证实广泛存在于环境中。 MPs 对水生生物的不良影响已得到广泛研究，而对土壤无脊椎动物的研究则很少。我们将土壤跳虫 Folsomia candida 暴露于含有聚乙烯 MPs（<500μm）的人工土壤中 28 天，以探讨 MPs 对回避、繁殖和肠道微生物群的影响。跳虫在 0.5%和 1% MPs（干土中 w/w）下表现出回避行为，回避率分别为 59%和 69%。当 MPs 浓度达到 0.1%时，繁殖受到抑制，在最高浓度 1% MPs 下，繁殖减少了 70.2%，与对照相比。基于 F. candida 繁殖的半数最大有效浓度（EC）值为 0.29% MPs。在土壤中干重 0.5%的浓度下， MPs 显著改变了跳虫的微生物群落并降低了跳虫肠道中的细菌多样性。具体来说，Wolbachia 的相对丰度显著降低，而 Bradyrhizobiaceae、Ensifer 和 Stenotrophomonas 的相对丰度显著增加。我们的结果表明， MPs 对跳虫产生了显著的毒性作用，并能改变其肠道微生物群落。这可以为 MPs 在陆地生态系统中的风险评估提供有用的信息。
