Ullmann Clemens Vinzenz, Arnone Maria Ina, Jimenez-Guri Eva
Department for Earth and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy, University of Exeter, Penryn, England, UK.
Biology and Evolution of Marine Organisms, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn Napoli, Naples, Campania, Italy.
Open Res Eur. 2024 Oct 17;4:59. doi: 10.12688/openreseurope.17112.2. eCollection 2024.
Plastic contamination is one of the concerns of our age. With more than 150 million tons of plastic floating in the oceans, and a further 8 million tons arriving to the water each year, in recent times the scientific community has been studying the effects these plastics have on sea life both in the field and with experimental approaches. Laboratory based studies have been using both natural sea water and artificial sea water for testing various aspects of plastic contamination, including the study of chemicals leached from the plastic particles to the water. We set out to test this equivalence, looking at the leaching of heavy metals form plastic particles.
We obtained leachates of polyvinyl chloride plastic pre-production nurdles both in natural and artificial sea water and determined the elements in excess from untreated water by Inductively coupled plasma - optical emission spectrometry. We then used these different leachates to assess developmental success in the tunicate by treating fertilised eggs through their development to hatched larvae.
Here we report that chemical analysis of polyvinyl chloride plastic pre-production pellet leachates shows a different composition in natural and artificial sea water. We find that the zinc leaching from the plastic particles is up to five times higher in natural seawater than in artificial seawater, and this can have an effect in the toxicological studies derived. Indeed, we observe different effects in the development of when using leachates in natural or artificial sea water. We also observe that not all artificial sea waters are suitable for studying the development of the tunicate .
Our results show that, at least in this case, both types of water are not equivalent to produce plastic leachaetes and suggest that precaution should be taken when conclusions are derived from results obtained in artificial sea water.
塑料污染是我们这个时代令人担忧的问题之一。海洋中漂浮着超过1.5亿吨塑料，且每年还有800万吨塑料进入水体，近年来科学界一直在通过实地研究和实验方法来研究这些塑料对海洋生物的影响。基于实验室的研究一直在使用天然海水和人工海水来测试塑料污染的各个方面，包括研究从塑料颗粒沥出到水中的化学物质。我们着手测试这种等效性，研究塑料颗粒中重金属的沥出情况。
我们获取了聚氯乙烯塑料生产前的塑料小球在天然海水和人工海水中的沥出液，并通过电感耦合等离子体发射光谱法测定未处理水中过量的元素。然后，我们使用这些不同的沥出液，通过处理受精卵直至孵化出幼虫，来评估被囊动物的发育成功率。
我们在此报告，聚氯乙烯塑料生产前颗粒沥出液的化学分析表明，天然海水和人工海水中的成分不同。我们发现，塑料颗粒中锌的沥出量在天然海水中比在人工海水中高出多达五倍，这可能会对由此得出的毒理学研究产生影响。实际上，我们观察到在使用天然海水或人工海水中的沥出液时，被囊动物的发育有不同的影响。我们还观察到并非所有人工海水都适合研究被囊动物的发育。
我们的结果表明，至少在这种情况下，两种类型的水在产生塑料沥出液方面并不等效，并表明在从人工海水中获得的结果得出结论时应谨慎。
