Impacts of microplastics on marine organisms: Present perspectives and the way forward

Devi, K. Nanthini; Raju, P.; Santhanam, P.; Perumal, Pachiappan

doi:10.1016/j.ejar.2022.03.001

Cited by 48 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Tropical coral reef ecosystems are facing extraordinary challenges from both local and global stressors that are altering their function (Eddy et al, 2021). On the local scale, pollution in the form of microplastics may threaten the health and physiology of reef-building corals (Soares et al, 2020;Nanthini devi et al, 2022). While there is evidence that corals ingest microplastics, which can lead to a variety of physiological responses (Hall et al, 2015;Rotjan et al, 2019), here we detected only a muted gene expression response in A. cervicornis exposed to microplastics.…”

Section: Microplastics Alone Do Not Drive Strong Gene Expression Resp...contrasting

confidence: 48%

Exposure to global change and microplastics elicits an immune response in an endangered coral

et al. 2023

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Global change is increasing seawater temperatures and decreasing oceanic pH, driving declines of coral reefs globally. Coral ecosystems are also impacted by local stressors, including microplastics, which are ubiquitous on reefs. While the independent effects of these global and local stressors are well-documented, their interactions remain less explored. Here, we examine the independent and combined effects of global change (ocean warming and acidification) and microplastics exposures on gene expression (GE) and microbial community composition in the endangered coral Acropora cervicornis. Nine genotypes were fragmented and maintained in one of four experimental treatments: 1) ambient conditions (ambient seawater, no microplastics; AMB); 2) microplastics treatment (ambient seawater, microplastics; MP); 3) global change conditions (warm and acidic conditions, no microplastics; OAW); and 4) multistressor treatment (warm and acidic conditions with microplastics; OAW+MP) for 22 days, after which corals were sampled for genome-wide GE profiling and ITS2 and 16S metabarcoding. Overall A. cervicornis GE responses to all treatments were subtle; however, corals in the multistressor treatment exhibited the strongest GE responses, and genes associated with innate immunity were overrepresented in this treatment. ITS2 analyses confirmed that all coral were associated with Symbiodinium ‘fitti’ and 16S analyses revealed similar microbiomes dominated by the bacterial associate Aquarickettsia, suggesting that these A. cervicornis fragments exhibited remarkably low variability in algal and bacterial community compositions. Future work should focus on functional differences across microbiomes, especially Aquarickettsia and viruses, in these responses. Overall, results suggest that when local stressors are coupled with global change, these interacting stressors present unique challenges to this endangered coral species.

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Section: Microplastics Alone Do Not Drive Strong Gene Expression Resp...contrasting

confidence: 48%

Exposure to global change and microplastics elicits an immune response in an endangered coral

et al. 2023

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show abstract

“…Tropical reef-building coral ecosystems are facing extraordinary challenges from both local and global stressors that are altering their function (Eddy et al, 2021). On the local scale, pollution in the form of microplastics may threaten the health and physiology of reef-building corals (Soares et al, 2020; Nanthini devi et al, 2022). While there is evidence that corals ingest microplastics, which can lead to a variety of physiological responses (Hall et al, 2015; Rotjan et al, 2019), here we only detected a muted gene expression response in A. cervicornis exposed to microplastics.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exposure to global change and microplastics elicits an immune response in an endangered coral

Bove

Greene

Sugierski

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Global change is increasing seawater temperatures and decreasing oceanic pH, driving declines of coral reefs globally. Coral ecosystems are also impacted by local stressors, including microplastics, which are ubiquitous on reefs. While the independent effects of these global and local stressors are well-documented, their interactions remain less explored. Here, we examine the independent and combined effects of global change (ocean warming and acidification) and microplastics exposures on gene expression (GE) and microbial community composition in the endangered coral Acropora cervicornis. Nine genotypes were fragmented and maintained in one of four experimental treatments: 1) ambient conditions (ambient seawater, no microplastics; AMB); 2) microplastics treatment (ambient seawater, microplastics; MP); 3) global change conditions (warm and acidic conditions, no microplastics; OAW); and 4) multistressor treatment (warm and acidic conditions with microplastics; OAW+MP) for 22 days, after which corals were sampled for genome-wide GE profiling and ITS and 16S metabarcoding. Overall A. cervicornis GE responses to all treatments were subtle; however, corals in the multistressor treatment exhibited the strongest GE responses, and genes associated with innate immunity were overrepresented in this treatment, according to gene ontology enrichment analyses. 16S analyses revealed stable microbiomes dominated by the bacterial associate Aquarickettsia, suggesting that these A. cervicornis fragments exhibited remarkably low variability in bacterial community composition. Future work should focus on functional differences across microbiomes, especially Aquarickettsia and viruses, in these responses. Overall, results suggest that local stressors present a unique challenge to endangered coral species under global change.

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“…MP abundance in surface waters of the Karnaphuli River estuary was compared with that in other aquatic environments around the world and is summarized in Table 1. Mean abundance of MPs in water from 15 sampling sites in the Karnaphuli River estuary was 3.99 items per m 3 , which varied in the range from 0.6 to 9.36 items per m 3 . The mean abundance of MPs in the Karnaphuli River estuary was slightly higher than that found in surface water in the Tallo River (1.85 items per m 3 ), Arakawa River (1.8 items per m 3 ), Ems River (1.54 items per m 3 ), and Garonne River (0.15 items per m 3 ).…”

Section: Occurrence and Abundance Of Mps In Watermentioning

confidence: 97%

“…5 For instance, Bian et al 38 used a 5 L stainless steel bucket to sample MPs from six rivers in China. They report concentration levels ranging from 2.30 to 21.05 items per L, which translates into 2300 to 21 050 items per m 3 . This is due to several factors, but primarily the fact that common mesh sizes of net trawls (e.g., 330 mm) are much higher than sieves used in situ (e.g., 75 mm), resulting in a signicant loss of <400 MPs.…”

Section: Occurrence and Abundance Of Mps In Watermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Primary MPs are micro-sized, and the main sources of primary MPs entering aquatic ecosystems come from personal care products, cosmetics, textile washing, tire friction, as well as domestic and industrial effluents, while secondary MPs are derived via the physical, chemical, and biological breakdown of macroplastics. 3,4 MPs have different ranges of shapes, polymer types, sizes, and colors. MP morphology is grouped into six types: fragment, lm, foam, ber, sheet, and pellet.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Spatiotemporal trends and characteristics of microplastic contamination in a large river-dominated estuary

Rakib

Nahian

Madadi

et al. 2023

Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts

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Impacts of microplastics on marine organisms: Present perspectives and the way forward

Cited by 48 publications

References 38 publications

Exposure to global change and microplastics elicits an immune response in an endangered coral

Exposure to global change and microplastics elicits an immune response in an endangered coral

Exposure to global change and microplastics elicits an immune response in an endangered coral

Spatiotemporal trends and characteristics of microplastic contamination in a large river-dominated estuary

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