Daphnia magna's Favorite Snack: Biofouled Plastics

Abstract

The influence of biofouling on zooplankton ingestion rates of plastics in freshwater environments has received limited attention. We investigated how biofouling of microplastics in wastewater effluent and in fresh surface water influences Daphnia magna's microplastic consumption. The differences in ingestion of the biofouled as compared with the virgin microplastics were higher for the surface water by a factor of seven compared with a factor of two for the effluent. The intake of biofouled microplastics by D. magna was higher compared with virgin plastics, but the reason for this preference should be further investigated. Environ Toxicol Chem 2022;41:1977–1981. © 2022 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC.

Plastic Litter Emits the Foraging Infochemical Dimethyl Sulfide after Submersion in Freshwater Rivers

“…However, the reasons for these preferences could not be discerned in the study. Other recent work has demonstrated the increased ingestion of microbially colonized plastic by Daphnia magna compared to virgin plastic, with the specific factors which drove this response remaining unknown (Polhill et al, 2022). Understanding the processes which drive the attraction to, and ingestion of, plastic is an important step in making accurate risk assessments of plastic pollution in the environment and is likely to increase the environmental realism of laboratory‐based ecotoxicological studies.…”

“…For example, the freshwater gastropod Radix ovata is known to show significant attraction to VOCs released from certain diatom and green algae species and is even able to differentiate between high-and low-quality food using only these odors (Fink et al, 2006a(Fink et al, , 2006bMoelzner & Fink, 2014). Odorous compounds are thought to mediate the interactions between plastic litter and larger organisms, with a growing number of studies demonstrating that the presence of a microbial biofilm on plastic significantly increases its ingestion by both marine and freshwater organisms, compared to the same plastic in its virgin state (DeMott, 1986;Polhill et al, 2022;Sucharitakul et al, 2021;Vroom et al, 2017). It has therefore been proposed that biofilm attachment to plastic and VOC production by microbial community members may mask the inedible nature of the plastic.…”

Freshwater Lacustrine Zooplankton and Microplastic: An Issue to Be Still Explored

“…Consequently, they can also reshape the potential exposure pathways and toxicological effects on zooplankton organisms [ 93 ]. In addition, ageing of MPs can favor the leaching of (toxic) chemicals present in the fragments, enhancing negative effects on organisms [ 94 , 95 ].…”

Microbe-mineral interactions in the Plastisphere: Coastal biogeochemistry and consequences for degradation of plastics

“…The characteristics of plastic (e.g., polymer type, morphology, size, degradation state) influence e.g., buoyancy, tastiness to biota, cellular uptake, and potential for particleparticle interactions, and in this way constrains interaction within aquatic biogeochemical pathways (Rogers et al, 2020;Wright et al, 2020;Galgani and Loiselle, 2021;Müller et al, 2021). The microbiota in the Plastisphere affect downward transport, food web uptake and degradation of plastic in water as well as in the pore space of soil and sediment (Amaral- Zettler et al, 2015;Jacquin et al, 2019;Amaral-Zettler et al, 2020;Coyle et al, 2020;Fabra et al, 2021;Polhill et al, 2022;Yu et al, 2023). Recent studies have indicated that the mineral, metal and salt component of the Plastisphere is also important for plastic transport in aquatic systems (Kowalski et al, 2016;Leiser et al, 2020;Rogers et al, 2020;Leiser et al, 2021;Müller et al, 2021;Ye et al, 2022).…”