Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Medicinaregatan 18A, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Medicinaregatan 18A, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Environ Pollut. 2022 Dec 15;315:120434. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2022.120434. Epub 2022 Oct 20.
Many studies have now reported adverse effects of exposure to microplastics in aquatic organisms. Still, relatively few studies have compared the effects of MPs with those of natural particle controls, which makes it difficult to separate particle effects from chemical effects. In this study, we carry out a meta-analysis of 26 studies to compare the effects of MPs and natural particles on aquatic animals using three different endpoints - growth, reproduction, and mortality. This analysis showed that MPs have the capacity to induce more adverse effects on growth, reproduction, and mortality for some taxonomic groups. However, the effects of exposure to MPs are not consistent across each endpoint or between taxonomic groups. We were not able to clearly discern differing impacts resulting from exposure to specific polymer types or shapes, though more negative effects were associated with polylactic acid and polyethylene, as well as fragments as opposed to beads or fibres. Additionally, meta-regression indicated that larger MP sizes, higher experimental temperatures, and longer exposure periods were all generally associated with more adverse effects. Future studies should continue to make use of negative particle controls to allow for better risk assessment of microplastics and nanoplastics in aquatic ecosystems.
许多研究现在已经报告了水生生物暴露于微塑料中的不良反应。然而，相对较少的研究比较了 MPs 与天然颗粒对照物的影响，这使得很难将颗粒的影响与化学影响分开。在这项研究中，我们对 26 项研究进行了荟萃分析，以比较 MPs 和天然颗粒对三种不同终点（生长、繁殖和死亡率）的水生动物的影响。这项分析表明，MPs 有能力对某些分类群的生长、繁殖和死亡率产生更大的不良影响。然而，暴露于 MPs 的影响在每个终点或分类群之间并不一致。我们无法清楚地辨别出由于暴露于特定聚合物类型或形状而导致的不同影响，尽管与聚乳酸和聚乙烯以及碎片相比，更多的负面影响与珠粒或纤维相关。此外，元回归表明，较大的 MP 尺寸、较高的实验温度和较长的暴露时间通常与更严重的影响相关。未来的研究应继续使用负颗粒对照物，以更好地评估水生生态系统中的微塑料和纳米塑料的风险。
