Nanoplastics pose a greater effect than microplastics in enhancing mercury toxicity to marine copepods

Tracking Nano- and Microplastics Accumulation and Egestion in a Marine Copepod by Novel Fluorescent AIEgens: Kinetic Modeling of the Rhythm Behavior

“…sinicus depuration was only 0.23 h, almost comparable to the normal rate of fecal pellet production, which was about 5–10 fecal pellets per hour in the presence of adequate food . Both Bai et al and Cheng et al. showed that copepod could rapidly depurate NMPs.…”

“…Pavlaki et al 60 measured the half-life of the copepod Acartia tonsa for depuration of cadmium to be in the range of 31−2310 h. The average half-life of NMPs by C. sinicus depuration was only 0.23 h, almost comparable to the normal rate of fecal pellet production, which was about 5−10 fecal pellets per hour in the presence of adequate food. 61 Both Bai et al 17 and Cheng et al 21 showed that copepod could rapidly depurate NMPs. These results strongly suggested that C. sinicus effectively removed NMPs.…”

“…, diatoms and ciliates with particle size ranging from 6 to 53 μm). , NPs with a particle size of 200 nm were likely to be smaller than the size to be captured effectively by C. sinicus, , but were confirmed to be consumed by copepods in previous studies. , Besides particle size, surface functionalization also affects the behavior and fate of NMPs, including dispersion and agglomeration in seawater, interaction with microalgae, and potential for gut retention. − Therefore, we chose two classes of NMPs with carboxyl and amino groups to represent positively and negatively charged NMPs in the environment.…”

“…7 Particularly, since NMPs have a large surface area to volume ratio, they can act as carriers of toxic chemicals that are added or adsorbed. 16,17 Some previous works showed that NMPs caused adverse effects on organisms at different trophic levels, including survival, feeding, reproduction, and embryonic development. 18,19 Studies of copepod life histories showed that free-living copepods usually have a diurnal vertical migration pattern, staying under the thermocline during the day and surfacing to the phytoplankton-rich surface water at night for feeding.…”

“…NMPs could also pass through the food chain at different trophic levels or even be transferred to humans through the food chain. − Ingested NMPs could reduce the energy supply and may cause physical damage to the digestive tract of organisms . Particularly, since NMPs have a large surface area to volume ratio, they can act as carriers of toxic chemicals that are added or adsorbed. , Some previous works showed that NMPs caused adverse effects on organisms at different trophic levels, including survival, feeding, reproduction, and embryonic development. , …”