First evidence of microplastics ingestion in benthic amphipods from Svalbard

Iannilli, Valentina; Pasquali, Vittorio; Setini, Andrea; Corami, Fabiana

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2019.108811

Cited by 92 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…The risk posed by plastic pollution to benthic fauna is considerably high due to their inability to discriminate between MPs and food particles [139,140]; ingestion has been confirmed by the presence of microplastics in the gut of organisms. Experiments have shown that MP ingestion adversely affects the feeding rate.…”

Section: Ecotoxicological Effects Of Mps On Benthic Organismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microplastic Contamination in Freshwater Environments: A Review, Focusing on Interactions with Sediments and Benthic Organisms

et al. 2020

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Plastic is one of the most commonly produced and used materials in the world due to its outstanding features. However, the worldwide use of plastics and poor waste management have led to negative impacts on ecosystems. Plastic degradation in the environment leads to the generation of plastic particles with a size of <5 mm, which are defined as microplastics (MPs). These represent a global concern due to their wide dispersion in water environments and unclear potential ecotoxicological effects. Different studies have been performed with the aim of evaluating the presence and impacts of MPs in the marine environment. However, the presence of MPs in freshwater systems is still poorly investigated, making data retrieval a difficult task. The purpose of this review is to identify the main aspects concerning MPs pollution sources in lakes and rivers, with a focus on freshwater sediments as a site of accumulation and as the habitat of benthic organisms, which are key components of food webs and play a fundamental role in energy/contaminant transfer processes, but are still poorly considered. Through this review, the sources and fate of MPs in freshwater are analysed, ecotoxicological studies focused on sediments and benthic fauna are exposed, the most frequently used sampling and analysis strategies are reported, and future trends of MPs analysis in this field are proposed.

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Section: Ecotoxicological Effects Of Mps On Benthic Organismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microplastic Contamination in Freshwater Environments: A Review, Focusing on Interactions with Sediments and Benthic Organisms

et al. 2020

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“…The Nile red staining method is a cost-efficient methodology to fast screen samples and to differentiate between plastic materials and natural materials (Maes et al, 2017). Earlier work on Nile red based MP analysis methods reported mainly the feasibility to identify plastics from non-plastics in water and sediment matrices (Shim et al, 2016;Erni-Cassola et al, 2017;Maes et al, 2017), and up to now, only a limited number of studies used Nile red identification of MPs in biota, especially invertebrates (Catarino et al, 2018;Iannilli et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2019). To our knowledge, this study is the first to demonstrate that a high accuracy in identifying synthetic polymers can also be met in fish GIT samples, which are known to be of high complexity to analyse due to the presence of natural lipophilic structures.…”

Section: Evaluation Of the Proposed Analysis Protocolmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feasibility Study on Biomonitoring of Microplastics in Fish Gastrointestinal Tracts

et al. 2022

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Monitoring the occurrence and trends of microplastic contamination in the marine environment is key to establish microplastic (MP) data baselines, to work out policy mitigation measures, and to assess the effectiveness of waste regulations. To establish MP contamination baselines in the marine environment, marine biota species can be selected as monitoring matrices to track plastic pollution in the environment. The aim of this work was to evaluate the feasibility of biomonitoring MPs in fish gastrointestinal tract (GIT). A selection of suitable fish species was performed, based on species distribution, sampling effort, commercial value of species, sustainable development of fish populations, migration behaviour, and scientific evidence for occurrence of MPs in the fish GIT. Sampling and MP extraction protocols were developed and validated on fish GIT samples acquired in the Southern North Sea. The fish species selection protocol enabled the selection of ubiquitous distributed and non-endangered fish species relevant for MP monitoring in the North Sea. The fish GIT sampling protocol considered background contamination measures and sampling fillet as procedural blanks. Advantages and disadvantages of onboard dissection were discussed. The MPs extraction protocol was based on matrix digestion, density separation, and Nile red staining of particles followed by fluorescent microscopy observation. The confirmation of MPs identification and the analysis of the polymer composition was done using micro-Fourier transform infrared (μFTIR) spectroscopy. The MP analysis indicated a low number of MPs in the fish GIT. The mean number of particles per single fish GIT was 0.48 ± 0.81 (Nile red staining observations) to 0.26 ± 0.64 (corrected for background contamination). A power analysis (sampling effort) indicated that to detect significant differences, in a balanced-ANOVA type of analysis, between species and/or sampling areas, the sample size would require a minimum of 109 up to 370 individual fish. The feasibility of MP biomonitoring in fish GIT was assessed by a SWOT-analysis, which indicated that fish GIT is a suitable matrix for biomonitoring of MPs, but that the large number of samples needed to identify significant differences can be a major drawback. A potential implementation strategy for MP biomonitoring within Europe was suggested.

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“…To our knowledge, the understanding of final environmental fate of such pollutants is still scarce and fragmentary. Recently, evidences of microplastic bioaccumulation are given for freshwater amphipods from Svalbard glacier-fed streams [80] and for Diamesa zernyi larvae from the Amola Glacier-fed stream (Italy). No information is now available on their effects on ground beetle fauna.…”

Section: Chemical Pollutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Glacial Biodiversity: Lessons from Ground-dwelling and Aquatic Insects

Gobbi¹,

Lencioni²

2021

Glaciers and the Polar Environment

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At first glance, the ground surrounding the glacier front and the streams originated by melting glaciers seem to be too extreme to host life forms. They are instead ecosystems, colonized by bacteria, fungi, algae, mosses, plants and animals (called the "glacial biodiversity"). The best adapted animals to colonize glacier surface, the recently deglaciated terrains and glacial streams are insects, specifically the ground beetles (carabids) and the non-biting midges (chironomids). This chapter aims to overview the species colonizing these habitats, their adaptation strategies to face natural cold and anthropogenic heat and the extinction threats of glacial retreat and pollution by emerging contaminants. Notes on their role in the glacial-ecosystem functioning and related ecosystem services are also given.

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First evidence of microplastics ingestion in benthic amphipods from Svalbard

Cited by 92 publications

References 17 publications

Microplastic Contamination in Freshwater Environments: A Review, Focusing on Interactions with Sediments and Benthic Organisms

Microplastic Contamination in Freshwater Environments: A Review, Focusing on Interactions with Sediments and Benthic Organisms

Feasibility Study on Biomonitoring of Microplastics in Fish Gastrointestinal Tracts

Glacial Biodiversity: Lessons from Ground-dwelling and Aquatic Insects

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