Bornt Katrina, Linge Kathryn, How Jason, de Lestang Simon, Hovey Renae, Langlois Tim
School of Biological Sciences and the Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia.
ChemCentre, PO Box 1250, Bentley, Western Australia 6102, Australia.
Mar Pollut Bull. 2024 Sep;206:116709. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2024.116709. Epub 2024 Jul 11.
The reliable quantification of microplastic contamination in chitinous organisms requires validated methods to remove interfering complex organic and inorganic material. This study trialled KOH, HO and HNO digestion methods on the digestive tracts of two large decapods (Panulirus cygnus and Portunus armatus) to validate a protocol that facilitates reliable microplastic extraction. KOH digestion provided the best recovery (>95 %) of all polymers (e.g. polyamide, polyethylene, polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, polystyrene and polyvinyl chloride), with the lowest impact to their physical morphology and chemical spectra. While HNO, and HNO + HO treatments were more effective at digesting chitin, they destroyed polyamide, and altered several other polymers. High digestion efficiency did not result in high matrix clarification or high microplastic recovery for large decapods. This study emphasises the importance of validating species-specific microplastic extraction methods, whilst proposing additional post-digestion protocols, such as density separation, for complex samples, that can be applied in future research investigating plastic contamination in large decapods.
对甲壳类生物中的微塑料污染进行可靠量化，需要经过验证的方法来去除干扰性的复杂有机和无机物质。本研究对两种大型十足目动物（天鹅龙虾和武装梭子蟹）的消化道进行了氢氧化钾（KOH）、过氧化氢（HO）和硝酸（HNO₃）消化方法试验，以验证一种有助于可靠提取微塑料的方案。KOH消化对所有聚合物（如聚酰胺、聚乙烯、聚对苯二甲酸乙二酯、聚丙烯、聚苯乙烯和聚氯乙烯）的回收率最高（>95%），对其物理形态和化学光谱的影响最小。虽然HNO₃和HNO₃+HO处理在消化几丁质方面更有效，但它们会破坏聚酰胺，并改变其他几种聚合物。对于大型十足目动物来说，高消化效率并未带来高基质澄清度或高微塑料回收率。本研究强调了验证物种特异性微塑料提取方法的重要性，同时为复杂样品提出了额外的消化后方案，如密度分离，可应用于未来研究大型十足目动物中的塑料污染。
