Microplastics reduce net population growth and fecal pellet sinking rates for the marine copepod, Acartia tonsa

Unpalatable Plastic: Efficient Taste Discrimination of Microplastics in Planktonic Copepods

“…Planktonic copepods are keystone components of the biological C pump by ingestion of primary production, export of particulate organic matter via fecal pellet and carcass production, vertical migrations, and respiration during hibernation , (Figure ). The adverse biological effects of microplastics, shown in laboratory studies, have raised concerns about the impact of microplastic pollution on the C cycle …”

“…The adverse biological effects of microplastics, shown in laboratory studies, have raised concerns about the impact of microplastic pollution on the C cycle. 78 Kvale et al 7 predicted that a physical effect of microplastic pollution via zooplankton negatively affects the biological C pump and consequently the global ocean oxygenation. Kvale's model assumes that the ingestion and selection of microplastics by zooplankton are only driven by the ratio of microplastics to natural food.…”

Ecological implications beyond the ecotoxicity of plastic debris on marine phytoplankton assemblage structure and functioning

“…The MP biofouling is able to decrease plastic buoyancy leading to plastic particles density increase, and this modification can induce MPs to sink towards seabed (Andrady, 2011). MPs could also be downward transported as zooplankton fecal pellet forms even with slower sinking velocity (Wieczorek et al, 2019;Shore et al, 2021). Once MPs reach marine sediments, particles may be toxic or harmful for benthic fauna communities by reducing their abundance or representing a potential ecological risk, because plastics become bioavailable and a consequent trophic transfer throughout marine food web may occur (Van Cauwenberghe and Janssen, 2014;Green, 2016).…”

Understanding microplastics in aquatic ecosystems – A mini review

“…Reduced feeding is one such effects and it is concentration-dependent (Cole et al, 2015;Yu et al, 2020b). Microplastics damage the organs (Caccamo et al, 2016;Lei et al, 2018;Yang et al, 2020), affect the growth, survival, and fecundity (Cole et al, 2015;Welden and Cowie, 2016;Yu et al, 2020b), and potentially reduce the population growth (Shore et al, 2021). Microplastic consumption also harms wild fish health, as evidenced by lower condition factors (K) of omnivorous fish specimens with higher microplastic content collected from several upper tidal pools in Las Cruces, Chile's central coast (Mizraji et al, 2017).…”