School of Environment and Civil Engineering, Jiangnan University, No. 1800, Lihu Avenue, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province 214122, PR China.
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Anaerobic Biotechnology, Jiangnan University, No. 1800, Lihu Avenue, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province 214122, PR China.
Environ Sci Process Impacts. 2021 Dec 15;23(12):1873-1883. doi: 10.1039/d1em00438g.
Nanoplastics (NPs) have drawn increasing attention in recent years due to their potential threats to aquatic ecosystems. Microalgae are primary producers, which play important roles in the normal functioning of ecosystems. According to the source of production and laboratory experiments, both NPs and microalgae are likely to be widely found in various water environments, so they have a great chance of interacting with each other. Although tremendous efforts have been made to explore these potential interactions, a timely and critical review is still missing. In this paper, the effects of NPs on microalgae and their trophic transfer along the food chain are summarized. The toxic impact of NPs on microalgae is tightly associated with the concentrations, sizes and surface charge of NPs, as well as the microalgal species. In addition, NPs could also interact with many other contaminants, thus leading to combined effects on microalgae. NP exposure might block substance and energy exchange between microalgae and their surrounding environment, lead to a shading effect on microalgae, promote the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) or induce direct physical damage on microalgae, thereby inhibiting the growth of microalgae. Moreover, NPs could also be trophically transferred along the food chain through microalgae and subsequently affect the species at a higher trophic level. Yet importantly, current understanding of the interactions between NPs and microalgae is still quite limited, and needs to be further studied.
近年来，由于纳米塑料（NPs）对水生生态系统的潜在威胁，它们引起了越来越多的关注。微藻是初级生产者，在生态系统的正常功能中起着重要作用。根据生产来源和实验室实验，NPs 和微藻都可能广泛存在于各种水环境中，因此它们有很大的机会相互作用。尽管已经做出了巨大的努力来探索这些潜在的相互作用，但仍然缺乏及时和关键的审查。本文总结了 NPs 对微藻的影响及其沿食物链的营养传递。NPs 对微藻的毒性影响与 NPs 的浓度、大小和表面电荷以及微藻种类密切相关。此外，NPs 还可以与许多其他污染物相互作用，从而对微藻产生联合效应。NP 暴露可能会阻止微藻与其周围环境之间的物质和能量交换，对微藻产生遮蔽效应，促进活性氧（ROS）的产生或对微藻造成直接的物理损伤，从而抑制微藻的生长。此外，NPs 还可以通过微藻沿食物链进行营养传递，随后影响更高营养级别的物种。然而，重要的是，目前对 NPs 和微藻之间相互作用的理解仍然相当有限，需要进一步研究。
