Nanoplastic Affects Growth of S. obliquus and Reproduction of D. magna

By E. Besseling, Bo Wang, M. Lürling, A. Koelmans. Environmental Science and Technology, 2014

1,020 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The amount of nano- and microplastic in the aquatic environment rises due to the industrial production of plastic and the degradation of plastic into smaller particles. Concerns have been raised about their incorporation into food webs. Little is known about the fate and effects of nanoplastic, especially for the freshwater environment. In this study, effects of nano-polystyrene (nano-PS) on the growth and photosynthesis of the green alga Scenedesmus obliquus and the growth, mortality, neonate production, and malformations of the zooplankter Daphnia magna were assessed. Nano-PS reduced population growth and reduced chlorophyll concentrations in the algae. Exposed Daphnia showed a reduced body size and severe alterations in reproduction. Numbers and body size of neonates were lower, while the number of neonate malformations among neonates rose to 68% of the individuals. These effects of nano-PS were observed between 0.22 and 103 mg nano-PS/L. Malformations occurred from 30 mg of nano-PS/L onward. Such plastic concentrations are much higher than presently reported for marine waters as well as freshwater, but may eventually occur in sediment pore waters. As far as we know, these results are the first to show that direct life history shifts in algae and Daphnia populations may occur as a result of exposure to nanoplastic.

Subfields: Biomaterials, Materials Chemistry, Pollution

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/40ae900170a4404dd7a03f473433ab2bd4362449

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In Biomaterials

1. P. Hollman
2. Jeremy Mendoza-Hill
3. E. Huerta Lwanga
4. C. Svendsen
5. Violette Geissen
6. S. Anbumani
7. D. Spurgeon
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In Materials Chemistry

1. S. Anbumani
2. P. Kakkar
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In Pollution

1. S. Anbumani
2. P. Kakkar
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4. P. Hollman
5. Jeremy Mendoza-Hill
6. P. Ross
7. Alexander Walton
8. E. Huerta Lwanga

Citations in the corpus

• Microplastics in fisheries and aquaculture (2017, background): “) to the planktonic water flea (Daphnia magna) and then to several species of fish: Crucian carp (Carassius carassius), Bleak (Alburnus alburnus), Rudd (Scardinius erythrophthalmus), Tench (Tinca tinca), Northern pike (Esox lucius) and Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) has been observed (Besseling et al”
• Toxic effects of microplastic on marine microalgae Skeletonema costatum: Interactions between microplastic and algae. (2017, background): “Microplastic had some influence on algal photosynthesis in previous studies (Besseling et al., 2014; Bhattacharya et al., 2010).”
• Ecotoxicological effects of microplastics on biota: a review (2018, background): “…obliquus Nano-polystyrene particles; 0.22 and 103 mg/l 96 h Growth and photosynthesis Reduced growth rate and decreased chlorophyll content Besseling et al. 2014 Dunaliella tertiolecta, Thalassiosira pseudonana, and Chlorella vulgaris polystyrene particles; size between 0.05 and 6 μm 72 h…”
• Macro- and micro- plastics in soil-plant system: Effects of plastic mulch film residues on wheat (Triticum aestivum) growth. (2018, background): “organisms (Besseling et al., 2014;Wegner et al., 2012) as well as effects on the growth and/or photosynthesis of algae (Bhattacharya et al.”