Keerthika Kalaiselvan, Padmavathy Pandurengan, Rani Velu, Jeyashakila Robinson, Aanand Samraj, Kutty Ranjeet, Arisekar Ulaganathan, Tamilselvan Rajarajan, Subash Palaniappan
Department of Aquatic Environment Management, Fisheries College and Research Institute, Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu, India.
Department of Aquatic Environment Management, Dr. M.G.R Fisheries College and Research Institute, Thalainayeru, India.
Environ Monit Assess. 2023 Mar 25;195(4):511. doi: 10.1007/s10661-023-11049-4.
Microplastics pollute the marine environment and pose a greater risk to marine organisms. The microplastics were observed in the guts of the 12 species, which varied from 0.00 to 1.80 ± 1.19 particles /individual. Most of the microplastics were fibre shaped, 0.5-1 mm sized, blue-coloured, and polyethylene polymers. The abundance of the microplastics was higher for benthic species (0.66 ± 0.13 particles/ individual) than the pelagic species (0.53 ± 0.11 particles/individual), with no significant difference (p > 0.05). According to their feeding habits and trophic level, significantly the microplastics were abundant in the herbivores (1.23 ± 0.61 particles/individual) and quaternary consumers (0.76 ± 0.16 particles/individual), respectively. The present study suggests that microplastic ingestion in commercially important species was influenced by their feeding habits irrespective of their habitat and length and weight. In addition to this, biomagnification of the microplastics (Trophic Magnification Factor, TMF = 1.02) was also observed in the commercially important species with increasing trophic level. This further indicates that the trophic level can serve as the pathway for the transfer of microplastics from lower trophic level organisms to higher trophic level organisms. The present study concludes that the occurrence of biomagnification of microplastics and the pollutants absorbed by them might harm the commercially important species from the Thoothukudi region.
微塑料污染海洋环境，对海洋生物构成更大风险。在12个物种的肠道中观察到了微塑料，每个个体的微塑料数量在0.00至1.80±1.19颗之间。大多数微塑料呈纤维状，尺寸为0.5 - 1毫米，蓝色，为聚乙烯聚合物。底栖物种（0.66±0.13颗/个体）的微塑料丰度高于浮游物种（0.53±0.11颗/个体），但差异不显著（p>0.05）。根据它们的摄食习惯和营养级，微塑料在食草动物（1.23±0.61颗/个体）和四级消费者（0.76±0.16颗/个体）中显著丰富。本研究表明，商业上重要物种摄入微塑料受其摄食习惯影响，与它们的栖息地、体长和体重无关。除此之外，在商业上重要的物种中还观察到微塑料的生物放大作用（营养放大因子，TMF = 1.02），且随着营养级的升高而增加。这进一步表明，营养级可作为微塑料从低营养级生物向高营养级生物转移的途径。本研究得出结论，微塑料及其吸附的污染物的生物放大作用的发生可能会损害图蒂科伦地区商业上重要的物种。
