Department of Sciences, University of Roma Tre, Viale G. Marconi 446, 00146, Rome, Italy.
Department of Chemistry, Sapienza University of Rome, P.le A. Moro, 5, 00185, Rome, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2021 Jan 12;11(1):720. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-80606-5.
Plastics are to date considered one of the main detrimental drivers for the health of aquatic ecosystems, both in marine and inland waters. Regarding the latter habitat, it seems surprising how the plastic effects on benthic invertebrates are neglected since macroinvertebrates have a long tradition in the water quality assessment activities. In this context, we propose timely indoor observations on the exposure of caddisfly Odontocerum albicorne and mayfly Ephemera danica to various microplastic polymers (ABS, PET, PP, PS, PVDF). Three different experimental designs were performed on caddisflies and mayflies by exposing their larvae to natural and microplastic substrates. Our findings highlighted how microplastics affected both caddisflies in rebuilding its own case (after having removed the natural one) and mayflies burrowing. Particularly, all caddisflies rebuilt cases using the microplastic polymers provided instead of natural items only. Moreover, we provide the first evidence that mayflies burrow mainly in microplastic substrates rather than in natural ones. Our research highlights that macroinvertebrate larvae would use naturally occurring microplastics and this could be of particular concern in freshwaters with high contamination by plastics. Indeed, larvae appear to not necessarily perceive microplastics as a direct stressor. Further studies ought to be conducted to understand the chronic perturbation on larvae fitness and for example, on drift behaviour. Also, further investigations are needed to understand the potentialities of using plastics by benthic macroinvertebrates.
迄今为止，塑料被认为是对水生生态系统健康造成主要危害的因素之一，无论是在海洋还是内陆水域。关于后者的栖息地，令人惊讶的是，人们忽视了塑料对底栖无脊椎动物的影响，因为无脊椎动物在水质评估活动中有着悠久的传统。在这种情况下，我们及时对毛翅目石蛾 Odontocerum albicorne 和蜉蝣目蜉蝣 Ephemera danica 暴露于各种微塑料聚合物（ABS、PET、PP、PS、PVDF）进行室内观察。我们对石蛾和蜉蝣进行了三种不同的实验设计，通过将幼虫暴露在自然和微塑料基质上来暴露它们。我们的研究结果表明，微塑料如何影响石蛾重建自己的巢穴（在去除天然巢穴之后）和蜉蝣挖掘。特别是，所有的石蛾都用提供的微塑料聚合物而不是天然物品来重建巢穴。此外，我们首次提供了蜉蝣主要在微塑料基质中而不是在天然基质中挖掘的证据。我们的研究表明，大型无脊椎动物幼虫会利用自然存在的微塑料，这在塑料污染严重的淡水中可能是一个特别令人关注的问题。事实上，幼虫似乎不一定将微塑料视为直接的胁迫因素。应该进行进一步的研究，以了解对幼虫适应性的慢性干扰，例如漂流行为。此外，还需要进一步的研究来了解底栖大型无脊椎动物利用塑料的潜力。
