Wageningen Marine Research, Wageningen University and Research, P.O. Box 57, 1780 AB Den Helder, the Netherlands; Marine Animal Ecology Group, Wageningen University and Research, P.O. Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, the Netherlands.
Wageningen Marine Research, Wageningen University and Research, P.O. Box 57, 1780 AB Den Helder, the Netherlands.
Environ Pollut. 2022 Dec 15;315:120429. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2022.120429. Epub 2022 Oct 13.
For two months, communities in 5.8 m outdoor marine mesocosms were exposed to 700 μm sphere-shaped polystyrene (PS) beads in dosages between 0.08 and 80 g/m. Barnacle (Semibalanus balanoides) densities were reduced at dosages of 0.8 g/m onwards without following a standard dose response curve. Lugworms and fish (Solea solea) ingested PS-beads without accumulating them. Lugworms (Arenicola marina) ingested the beads nonselective with the sediment without negative effects. The fish seemed to ingest the plastics only occasionally and at the final sampling day even in the highest dosed mesocosms (>30 beads/cm) only 20% contained plastic. The condition index of the fish was slightly reduced in mesocosms with dosages of 0.8 g/m onwards. No difference in condition was found between fish with and without ingested plastic across mesocosms, illustrating the difficulty to relate plastic ingestion with condition from field data. The fish also ingested mollusks with shells exceeding the size of the PS-beads. Bivalves rejected the PS-beads as pseudofeces, without obvious impact on their condition. Mussel's (Mytilus edulis) pseudofeces present an effective matrix to monitor microplastic presence in the water column. Species richness and diversity of the pelagic and benthic community were not affected although, a trend was found that the lower microplastic dosages had a positive effect on the total abundance of benthic invertebrates. In general, the observed effects at even the highest exposure concentrations were that subtle that they will be obscured by natural variation in the field. This underlines the importance of experiments under semi-field conditions for meaningful assessment of the ecological impact of microplastics. This study was performed with the real life, non-toxic, sphere-shaped polystyrene beads as were lost during an actual spill near the Dutch Wadden sea in January 2019. We recommend future mesocosm studies with other types of microplastics, including microfibers, weathered microplastics from sea, and smaller sized particles down to nanoplastics.
在两个月的时间里，5.8 米户外海洋中观实验室内的群落暴露在剂量为 0.08 至 80 克/平方米的 700μm 球形聚苯乙烯（PS）珠中。在剂量为 0.8 克/平方米及以上时，藤壶的密度降低，但没有遵循标准的剂量反应曲线。蝼蛄和鱼类（ Solea solea ）摄入 PS 珠但不积累它们。蝼蛄（ Arenicola marina ）无选择性地与沉积物一起摄入珠子，没有产生负面影响。鱼类似乎只是偶尔摄入塑料，甚至在最高剂量的中观实验室内（>30 个珠子/厘米），在最后一次采样日也只有 20%的鱼类含有塑料。鱼类的健康指数在剂量为 0.8 克/平方米及以上的中观实验室内略有降低。在中观实验室内，摄入塑料的鱼类与未摄入塑料的鱼类之间的健康状况没有差异，这说明了从现场数据中很难将塑料摄入与健康状况联系起来。鱼类还摄入了壳超过 PS 珠尺寸的贝类。双壳类动物将 PS 珠作为假粪便排出，对其健康状况没有明显影响。贻贝（ Mytilus edulis ）的假粪便为监测水柱中微塑料的存在提供了有效的基质。尽管发现较低的微塑料剂量对底栖无脊椎动物的总丰度有积极影响，但浮游生物和底栖生物群落的物种丰富度和多样性没有受到影响。一般来说，即使在最高暴露浓度下观察到的影响也很细微，以至于在野外会被自然变异所掩盖。这强调了在半野外条件下进行实验的重要性，以便对微塑料的生态影响进行有意义的评估。本研究使用的是在 2019 年 1 月荷兰瓦登海附近实际溢油事件中丢失的真实、无毒、球形聚苯乙烯珠进行的。我们建议未来的中观实验室内研究使用其他类型的微塑料，包括微纤维、海洋风化的微塑料和更小尺寸的颗粒，直至纳米塑料。
