Contrasting the effects of microplastic types, concentrations and nutrient enrichment on freshwater communities and ecosystem functioning

Marchant, Danielle J.; Rodríguez, Ana Martínez; Francelle, Pascaline; Jones, J. Iwan; Kratina, Pavel

doi:10.1016/j.ecoenv.2023.114834

Cited by 22 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 84 publications

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“…The concentrations we used in our study are comparable to those reported in the field, with the mean concentration of microplastics found in inland freshwaters determined to be approximately 1 to 1.9 microplastics/L with a range of <0 to 50 microplastics/L (D' Avignon et al, 2022;Klasios & Tseng, 2023). Our exposures of 10 (low treatment) and 50 (high treatment) microplastics/L are slightly higher than the average concentration reported in lake water in nature but significantly lower than the majority of published laboratory studies (Bucci et al, 2020) and lower than those used in other mesocosm studies (Aljaibachi et al, 2020;Marchant et al, 2023;Yıldız et al, 2022). We chose to investigate the effects of polyester microplastic fibers because they are one of the most dominant morphologies and polymer types found in the environment (Klasios & Tseng, 2023;Napper et al, 2023) and within organisms (Rebelein et al, 2021).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 46%

“…Similar to our findings, Aljaibachi et al (2020) found no differences in the abundance of Daphnia and other macroinvertebrates between control and polystyrene microplastic sphere-exposed mesocosms. In addition, Marchant et al (2023) reported that taxonomic richness and plankton community composition were not affected by polyethylene and polylactic acid fragment exposure. Furthermore, Yıldız et al (2022) reported that a mixture of microplastics (various polymers in sphere and fragment morphologies) did not alter the structure and population dynamics of their experimentally assembled freshwater invertebrate community, although they did find evidence of microplastics entering multiple trophic levels.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At the population scale, exposure to microplastics has resulted in reduced Daphnia population biomass (Bosker et al, 2019), microalgae biomass (Green et al, 2016), and population size of calanoid copepods (Heindler et al, 2017). Regarding community-level effects of microplastics, only a limited number of studies have been published to date (Aljaibachi et al, 2020;Marchant et al, 2023;Rauchschwalbe et al, 2022;Silva et al, 2022;Stanković et al, 2022;Yıldız et al, 2022). Similar to the effects of microplastics on individual organisms such as Daphnia, these studies have documented varying effects of microplastics on different communities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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No Effect of Realistic Concentrations of Polyester Microplastic Fibers on Freshwater Zooplankton Communities

Klasios,

Kim,

Tseng

2023

Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry

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Zooplankton are a conduit of energy from autotrophic phytoplankton to higher trophic levels, and they can be a primary point of entry of microplastics into the aquatic food chain. Investigating how zooplankton communities are affected by microplastic pollution is thus a key step towards understanding ecosystem‐level effects of these global and ubiquitous contaminants. Although the number of studies investigating the biological effects of microplastics has grown exponentially in the last decade, the majority have used controlled laboratory experiments to quantify the impacts of microplastics on individual species. Given that all organisms live in multi‐species communities in nature, here we use an outdoor 1130L mesocosm experiment to investigate the effects of microplastic exposure on natural assemblages of zooplankton. We endeavored to simulate an environmentally relevant exposure scenario by manually creating ~270,000 0.015mm x 1‐1.5mm polyester fibers and inoculating mesocosms with zero, low (10 particles/L) or high (50 particles/L) concentrations. We recorded zooplankton abundance and community composition three times throughout the 12‐week study. We found no effect of microplastics on zooplankton abundance, Shannon diversity, or Pielou's evenness. NMDS plots also revealed no effects of microplastics on zooplankton community composition. Our study provides a necessary and realistic baseline upon which future studies can build. Because numerous other stressors faced by zooplankton (e.g. food limitation, eutrophication, warming temperatures, pesticides) are likely to exacerbate the effects of microplastics, we caution against concluding that polyester microfibers will always have no effect on zooplankton communities. Instead, we encourage future studies to investigate the triple threats of habitat degradation, climate warming, and microplastic pollution on zooplankton community health.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 46%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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No Effect of Realistic Concentrations of Polyester Microplastic Fibers on Freshwater Zooplankton Communities

Klasios,

Kim,

Tseng

2023

Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry

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“…In this study, we show the unique impacts of three commonly encountered plastics on freshwater benthic ecosystem function, including primary production and nutrient cycling. While others have investigated the impacts of microplastics on freshwater ecosystem function [97][98][99][100][101], this is the first study, to our knowledge, to examine this specific set of diverse plastics under such a comprehensive combination of metrics in freshwater sediments, and the results point to a clear need for additional work to better understand the potential risk that microplastic poses to benthic ecosystems. The ubiquity of both use (i.e., PET clothing, tire debris from vehicles, and PVC in construction/tools) and the environmental presence of the polymers selected for this study suggest a broad applicability of the work and also highlight the extraordinary complexity of the "plastic problem".…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Impact of Microplastic on Freshwater Sediment Biogeochemistry and Microbial Communities Is Polymer Specific

Chomiak,

Owens-Rios,

Bangkong

et al. 2024

Water

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Plastic debris is a growing threat in freshwater ecosystems and transport models predict that many plastics will sink to the benthos. Among the most common plastics found in the Laurentian Great Lakes sediments are polyethylene terephthalate (especially fibers; PET), polyvinylchloride (particles; PVC), and styrene-butadiene rubber resulting from tire wear (“crumb rubber”; SBR). These materials vary substantially in physical and chemical properties, and their impacts on benthic biogeochemistry and microbial community structure and function are largely unknown. We used a microcosm approach to evaluate the impact of these three plastics on benthic-pelagic coupling, sediment properties, and sediment microbial community structure and function using sediments from Irondequoit Bay, a major embayment of Lake Ontario in Rochester, New York, USA. Benthic metabolism and nitrogen and phosphorous cycling were all uniquely impacted by the different polymers. PET fibers and PVC particles demonstrated the most unique effects, with decreased ecosystem metabolism in sediments containing PET and greater nutrient uptake in sediments with PVC. Microbial diversity was reduced in all treatments containing plastic, but SBR had the most substantial impact on microbial community function, increasing the relative importance of metabolic pathways such as hydrocarbon degradation and sulfur metabolism. Our results suggest that individual polymers have unique impacts on the benthos, with divergent implications for ecosystem function. This provides deeper insight into the myriad ways plastic pollution may impact aquatic ecosystems and will help to inform risk assessment and policy interventions by highlighting which materials pose the greatest risk.

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“…This is not surprising, because microplastics cause no effects on the survival and growth of many invertebrates, but they still may affect the functioning of only sensitive aquatic species [58]. Moreover, recent studies [59] showed that the negative impacts of microplastics may not be readily visible at the ecosystem scale.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plastic Debris in the Stomach of the Invasive Signal Crayfish Pacifastacus leniusculus from a Baltic Coastal River

Dobrzycka-Krahel,

Skóra,

Pladzyk

2024

Water

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The signal crayfish Pacifastacus leniusculus is one of the most widespread non-indigenous crayfish in Europe and is of interest to aquaculture in many countries. Once they escape into the wild, they disperse and become a potential source of food exploited for consumption by local inhabitants. The ingestion of plastics by the invasive signal crayfish in the Wieprza River, a tributary to the Baltic Sea, was determined by the FTIR identification of plastic compounds found in stomachs. The occurrence of plastic debris in the stomachs of P. leniusculus is reported for the first time. Plastic particles with the size range between 70 and 450 µm were observed only among crayfish inhabiting the lower, urbanized part of the river (7.3% of specimens). The presence of PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene), cellophane, PP (polypropylene), PE (polyethylene), PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate), and nylon was confirmed with the highest frequency of PTFE in the stomachs of crayfish. Fibres were the predominant type of microplastics in crayfish stomachs. The results indicated the size-selective uptake and ingestion of plastics depending on the traits of the species and environment.

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Contrasting the effects of microplastic types, concentrations and nutrient enrichment on freshwater communities and ecosystem functioning

Cited by 22 publications

References 84 publications

No Effect of Realistic Concentrations of Polyester Microplastic Fibers on Freshwater Zooplankton Communities

No Effect of Realistic Concentrations of Polyester Microplastic Fibers on Freshwater Zooplankton Communities

Impact of Microplastic on Freshwater Sediment Biogeochemistry and Microbial Communities Is Polymer Specific

Plastic Debris in the Stomach of the Invasive Signal Crayfish Pacifastacus leniusculus from a Baltic Coastal River

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