Earth and Environmental Science Department, University of Milano Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126 Milano, Italy; MaRHE Center (Marine Research and High Education Center), Magoodhoo Island Faafu Atoll, Maldives.
Earth and Environmental Science Department, University of Milano Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 1, 20126 Milano, Italy; MaRHE Center (Marine Research and High Education Center), Magoodhoo Island Faafu Atoll, Maldives.
Mar Pollut Bull. 2020 Jun;155:111117. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2020.111117. Epub 2020 Apr 28.
Microplastic pollution represents a serious hazard for the marine environment, including coral reefs. Scleractinian corals can easily mistake microplastics with their natural preys, and ingest them and all the annexed plasticizer additives. Here we selectively searched on field for five phthalates esters (PAEs) namely dibutyl-phthalate (DBP), benzylbutyl-phthalate (BBzP), diethyl-phthalate (DEP), Bis(2-ethylhexyl)-phthalate (DEHP), and dimethyl-phthalate (DMP) in the coral species Pocillopora verrucosa, Porites lutea and Pavona varians. Our data reveal that >95% of corals sampled were contaminated, with a maximum of 172.4 ng/g, a value 7 time-fold higher than those found in a previous study. The Σ PAEs showed an average of about 30 ng/g per coral, but no differences in PAEs contamination was detected between species, depth or reef exposure. Despite their effects on coral physiology are not yet known, PAEs should be now considered as a novel, and ubiquitous, form of contamination in corals.
微塑料污染对海洋环境构成了严重威胁，包括珊瑚礁。石珊瑚很容易将微塑料误认为是它们的天然猎物，并将其吞食，同时摄入所有附着的增塑剂添加剂。在这里，我们在野外选择性地搜索了 5 种邻苯二甲酸酯（PAEs），即邻苯二甲酸二丁酯（DBP）、邻苯二甲酸苄丁酯（BBzP）、邻苯二甲酸二乙酯（DEP）、邻苯二甲酸二（2-乙基己基）酯（DEHP）和邻苯二甲酸二甲酯（DMP），在珊瑚物种 P. verrucosa、P. lutea 和 P. varians 中。我们的数据显示，超过 95%的采样珊瑚受到了污染，最高值为 172.4ng/g，是之前研究中发现的数值的 7 倍。Σ PAEs 平均每个珊瑚约为 30ng/g，但在物种、深度或珊瑚礁暴露方面，PAEs 的污染没有差异。尽管它们对珊瑚生理学的影响尚不清楚，但 PAEs 现在应该被视为珊瑚中一种新的、普遍存在的污染形式。
