Sarker Subrata, Huda A N M Samiul, Niloy Md Nazmul Hasan, Chowdhury Gawsia Wahidunnessa
Department of Oceanography, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet 3114, Bangladesh.
Department of Zoology, University of Dhaka, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh.
Sci Total Environ. 2022 Sep 10;838(Pt 2):155896. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155896. Epub 2022 May 13.
Globally microplastics (MPs) contaminations have been widely reported across the large number of organisms in the marine ecosystem. Consequently, trophic transfer of MPs inferred to occur across the organisms of marine food webs. However, scientific evidence on trophic transfer of MPs across the marine organisms is very limited. Therefore, this study aimed to understand the transfer of MPs across the trophic levels in the marine ecosystem. We sampled individuals of different species of primary consumers, secondary consumers, tertiary consumers and quaternary consumers from the aquatic ecosystem of Sundarbans mangrove forest from June 2021 to December 2021. This study found that marine organisms in the aquatic ecosystem of Sundarbans mangrove forest are contaminated with MPs. The abundance of MPs in collected samples varied between 0.56 ± 0.25 items/individual and 6.06 ± 1.20 items/individual. Maximum MPs was recorded as 5.5 ± 1.21 items/individual in predators followed by 5.1 ± 0.85, 4.5 ± 0.39, 1.2 ± 0.26, 1.1 ± 0.28 and 1.01 ± 0.25 in filter feeders, browsers, deposit feeders, selective planktivores and variable feeders, respectively. Maximum MPs abundance was encountered in quaternary consumers (4.17 items/individual) followed by tertiary consumers (3.17 items/individual), secondary consumers (2.74 items/individual) and primary consumers (0.56 items/individual). We found that MPs abundance increases with the increase of trophic levels (R = 0.64, p < 0.001) which indicates that transfer of MPs across different trophic levels and also showed the evidence of biomagnification of MPs in successive trophic levels. Our study is the first report of trophic transfer of MPs in sub-tropical mangrove ecosystem and will serve as a guideline to understand the MPs pollution in the coastal ecosystem of Bangladesh.
全球范围内，微塑料（MPs）污染在海洋生态系统中的大量生物中已被广泛报道。因此，推断微塑料在海洋食物网的生物之间会发生营养级转移。然而，关于微塑料在海洋生物间营养级转移的科学证据非常有限。因此，本研究旨在了解微塑料在海洋生态系统营养级间的转移情况。我们于2021年6月至2021年12月从孙德尔本斯红树林水生生态系统中采集了不同物种的初级消费者、次级消费者、三级消费者和四级消费者个体样本。本研究发现，孙德尔本斯红树林水生生态系统中的海洋生物受到微塑料污染。采集样本中微塑料的丰度在0.56±0.25个/个体至6.06±1.20个/个体之间变化。捕食者中记录到的微塑料最多，为5.5±1.21个/个体，其次是滤食性动物、啃食者、沉积食性动物、选择性浮游动物和杂食性动物，分别为5.1±0.85个/个体、4.5±0.39个/个体、1.2±0.26个/个体、1.1±0.28个/个体和1.01±0.25个/个体。微塑料丰度最高的是四级消费者（4.17个/个体），其次是三级消费者（3.17个/个体）、次级消费者（2.74个/个体）和初级消费者（0.56个/个体）。我们发现微塑料丰度随着营养级的增加而增加（R = 0.64，p < 0.001），这表明微塑料在不同营养级间发生了转移，也显示了微塑料在连续营养级中生物放大的证据。我们的研究是亚热带红树林生态系统中微塑料营养级转移的首次报告，并将作为了解孟加拉国沿海生态系统中微塑料污染的指南。
