Microplastic ingestion decreases energy reserves in marine worms.

By Stephanie L Wright, D. Rowe, Richard C. Thompson, T. Galloway. Current Biology, 2013

963 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The indiscriminate disposal of plastic to the environment is of concern. Microscopic plastic litter (<5 mm diameter; 'microplastic') is increasing in abundance in the marine environment, originating from the fragmentation of plastic items and from industry and personal-care products [1]. On highly impacted beaches, microplastic concentrations (<1mm) can reach 3% by weight, presenting a global conservation issue [2]. Microplastics are a novel substrate for the adherence of hydrophobic contaminants [1], deposition of eggs [3], and colonization by unique bacterial assemblages [4]. Ingestion by indiscriminate deposit-feeders has been reported, yet physical impacts remain understudied [1]. Here, we show that deposit-feeding marine worms maintained in sediments spiked with microscopic unplasticised polyvinylchloride (UPVC) at concentrations overlapping those in the environment had significantly depleted energy reserves by up to 50% (Figure 1). Our results suggest that depleted energy reserves arise from a combination of reduced feeding activity, longer gut residence times of ingested material and inflammation.

Subfields: Biomaterials, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Pollution

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7451eb4d90352476b7cd84c8766419a39c4e5149

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Citations in the corpus

Microplastics in the Marine Environment: Distribution, Interactions and Effects (2015, background): “By inhabiting different marine habitats, a range of organisms are vulnerable to exposure (Wright et al. 2013a).”
Microplastics in freshwater and terrestrial environments: Evaluating the current understanding to identify the knowledge gaps and future research priorities. (2017, background): “…inflammatory responses and plastic particles replacing digestible 598 food, causing individuals to reduce feeding hence resulting in lower energy intake, although effects 599 vary between species and plastic types (Moore, 2008; von Moos et al., 2012; Wright et al., 2013a; 600 Wright et al., 2013b).”
Microplastics in fisheries and aquaculture (2017, background): “, 2015a) and deposit feeders, such as sea cucumbers (Graham and Thompson, 2009), annelids (Besseling et al., 2013; Browne et al., 2015b; Wright et al., 2013), crabs (Watts et al.”
Oyster reproduction is affected by exposure to polystyrene microplastics (2016, background): “These studies mainly showed a reduction of feeding activity (19), reserve depletion (13), inflammatory responses (15, 17), and translocation of MP into the circulatory system (14, 17).”
Atmospheric microplastic deposition in an urban environment and an evaluation of transport (2019, background): “In the environment, microplastics can have detrimental effects on aquatic organisms when ingested (Sussarellu et al., 2016; Wright et al., 2013).”