Key Laboratory of Marine Eco-Environmental Science and Technology, Marine Bioresource and Environment Research Center, First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, No. 6 Xianxialing Road, Qingdao 266061, PR China.
Key Laboratory of Animal Ecology and Conservation Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 1 Beichen West Road, Beijing 100101, PR China.
Sci Adv. 2023 Jul 7;9(27):eadf5897. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adf5897.
Marine microplastics are an increasingly big concern. We analyze the occurrence of microplastics in Alaska pollock () across 2+ to 12+ ages sampled from the Bering Sea. Results show that 85% of the fish have ingested microplastics and elder fish ingest more with over a third of microplastics in the 100- to 500-micrometer size range, indicating the prevalence of microplastics in Alaska pollock distributed in the Bering Sea. A positive linear relationship is obtained between fish age and microplastic size. Meanwhile, the number of polymer types increases in elder fish. The link between microplastic characteristics in Alaska pollock and the surrounding seawater suggests an extended spatial impact of microplastics. The impact of age-related microplastic ingestion on the population quality of Alaska pollock is still unknown. Therefore, we need to further investigate the potential impact of microplastics on marine organisms and the marine ecosystem, taking age as an important factor.
海洋微塑料是一个日益严重的问题。我们分析了在白令海采集的 2+ 到 12+ 年龄的阿拉斯加狭鳕（）中微塑料的出现情况。结果表明，85%的鱼体内有微塑料，年龄较大的鱼摄入的微塑料更多，超过三分之一的微塑料尺寸在 100 到 500 微米之间，这表明白令海分布的阿拉斯加狭鳕中存在微塑料。在阿拉斯加狭鳕中，鱼的年龄和微塑料尺寸之间存在正线性关系。同时，老年鱼中的聚合物类型数量增加。阿拉斯加狭鳕中微塑料特性与周围海水之间的联系表明，微塑料的空间影响范围很广。年龄相关的微塑料摄入对阿拉斯加狭鳕种群质量的影响尚不清楚。因此，我们需要进一步研究微塑料对海洋生物和海洋生态系统的潜在影响，将年龄作为一个重要因素。
