Estimating the size distribution of plastics ingested by animals

Jâms, Ifan B.; Windsor, Fredric M.; Poudevigne-Durance, Thomas; Ormerod, Stephen James; Durance, Isabelle

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-15406-6

Cited by 160 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…It is confirmed that the methods for the identification of fMP polymers are based on spectroscopic analysis, in particular, FT-IR and Raman for fMPs in water and sediment [34,55]. The preference for µ-FTIR in biota studies may be due to the size of the fMPs studied (e.g., macroinvertebrates can ingest smaller MPs [79]).…”

Section: Polymer Identification Techniques and Contamination Of Fresh And Marine Watersmentioning

confidence: 68%

Microplastics in Freshwater: What Is the News from the World?

2020

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Plastic has become a “hot topic” for aquatic ecosystems’ conservation together with other issues such as climate change and biodiversity loss. Indeed, plastics may detrimentally affect habitats and biota. Small plastics, called microplastics, are more easily taken up by freshwater organisms, causing negative effects on growth, reproduction, predatory performance, etc. Since available information on microplastics in freshwater are fragmentary, the aim of this review is twofold: (i) to show, analyse, and discuss data on the microplastics concentration in freshwater and (ii) to provide the main polymers contaminating freshwater for management planning. A bibliographic search collected 158 studies since 2012, providing the scientific community with one of the largest data sets on microplastics in freshwater. Contamination is reported in all continents except Antarctica, but a lack of information is still present. Lentic waters are generally more contaminated than lotic waters, and waters are less contaminated than sediments, suggested to be sinks. The main contaminating polymers are polypropylene and polyethylene for sediment and water, while polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate are mainly found in biota. Future research is encouraged (1) to achieve a standardised protocol for monitoring, (2) to identify sources and transport routes (including primary or secondary origin), and (3) to investigate trophic transfer, especially from benthic invertebrates.

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Section: Polymer Identification Techniques and Contamination Of Fresh And Marine Watersmentioning

confidence: 68%

Microplastics in Freshwater: What Is the News from the World?

2020

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“…The ratio of species size and maximum ingestible MP size is 50.5 ± 14.9 ( n = 8) on average, which agrees well with the range of 40 to 50 recently reported for small invertebrate species. 41 Autotrophic phytoplankton and macrophyte species were not supposed to ingest microplastic particles, in which case the bio-unavailable fraction of environmental microplastic was assumed to be negligible. From the MC simulations, it appeared that the ingestible percentages ranged from 93 ( Ceriodaphnia dubia ) to 99% ( Haworthiopsis attenuata ) based on particle numbers ( Figure S2A ), and from 0.0054 to 1.7% based on mass ( Figure S2B ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solving the Nonalignment of Methods and Approaches Used in Microplastic Research to Consistently Characterize Risk

Koelmans

Redondo‐Hasselerharm

Nor

et al. 2020

Environ. Sci. Technol.

210

251

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The lack of standard approaches in microplastic research limits progress in the abatement of plastic pollution. Here, we propose and test rescaling methods that are able to improve the alignment of methods used in microplastic research. We describe a method to correct for the differences in size ranges as used by studies reporting microplastic concentrations and demonstrate how this reduces the variation in aqueous-phase concentrations caused by method differences. We provide a method to interchange between number, volume, and mass concentrations using probability density functions that represent environmental microplastic. Finally, we use this method to correct for the incompatibility of data as used in current species sensitivity distributions (SSDs), caused by differences in the microplastic types used in effect studies and those in nature. We derived threshold effect concentrations from such a corrected SSD for freshwater species. Comparison of the rescaled exposure concentrations and threshold effect concentrations reveals that the latter would be exceeded for 1.5% of the known surface water exposure concentrations worldwide. Altogether, this toolset allows us to correct for the diversity of microplastic, to address it in a common language, and to assess its risks as one environmental material.

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“…Gape size constrains the prey and MP sizes a fish can ingest, with larger fish generally having larger maximum particle sizes and/or MP loadings (Dantas et al, 2012; Pegado et al, 2018; Ramos et al, 2012; Ryan et al, 2019), although there are exceptions (McNeish et al, 2018; Slootmaekers et al, 2019; Vendel et al, 2017). A general review of plastic ingestion in animals suggests that body size alone can explain as much as 42% of variations in plastics consumed by animals and that the ratio of the maximum ingestible plastic size for an animal relative to its body size is approximately 1:20 (Jâms et al, 2020). Sex has also been implicated as a possible explanation for differences in freshwater fish MP patterns (Horton et al, 2018; Su, Nan, et al, 2019), although this might be an artefact of body size, given patterns of sexual dimorphism in fish (Parker, 1992).…”

Section: Occurrence Of Mps In Freshwater Fishes: From Sources To Egestionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microplastics in freshwater fishes: Occurrence, impacts and future perspectives

et al. 2021

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Microplastics (MPs) are small, plastic particles of various shapes, sizes and polymers.Although well studied in marine systems, their roles and importance in freshwater environments remain uncertain. Nevertheless, the restricted ranges and variable traits of freshwater fishes result in their communities being important receptors and strong bioindicators of MP pollution. Here, the current knowledge on MPs in freshwater fishes is synthesized, along with the development of recommendations for future research and sample processing. MPs are commonly ingested and passively taken up by numerous freshwater fishes, with ingestion patterns often related to individual traits (e.g. body size, trophic level) and environmental factors (e.g. local urbanization, habitat features). Controlled MP exposure studies highlight various effects on fish physiology, biochemistry and behaviour that are often complex, unpredictable, species-specific and nonlinear in respect of dose-response relationships.Egestion is typically rapid and effective, although particles of a particular shape and/ or size may remain, or translocate across the intestinal wall to other organs via the blood. Regarding future studies, there is a need to understand the interactions of MP pollution with other anthropogenic stressors (e.g. warming, eutrophication), with a concomitant requirement to increase the complexity of studies to enable impact assessment at population, community and ecosystem levels, and to determine whether there are consequences for processes, such as parasite transmission, where MPs could vector parasites or increase infection susceptibility. This knowledge will determine the extent to which MP pollution can be considered a major anthropogenic stressor of freshwaters in this era of global environmental change.

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Estimating the size distribution of plastics ingested by animals

Cited by 160 publications

References 27 publications

Microplastics in Freshwater: What Is the News from the World?

Microplastics in Freshwater: What Is the News from the World?

Solving the Nonalignment of Methods and Approaches Used in Microplastic Research to Consistently Characterize Risk

Microplastics in freshwater fishes: Occurrence, impacts and future perspectives

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