Effects of a microplastic mixture differ across trophic levels and taxa in a freshwater food web: In situ mesocosm experiment

Yıldız, Dilvin; Yalçın, Gülce; Jovanović, Boris; Boukal, David S.; Vebrová, Lucie; Riha, Derya; Stanković, Jelena; Savić-Zdraković, Dimitrija; Metin, Melisa; Akyürek, Yasmin Naz; Balkanlı, Deniz; Filiz, Nur; Milošević, Djuradj; Feuchtmayr, Heidrun; Richardson, Jessica; Beklioğlu, Meryem

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.155407

Cited by 28 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 87 publications

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“…In addition, Marchant et al (2023) reported that taxonomic richness and plankton community composition were not affected by polyethylene and polylactic acid fragment exposure. Furthermore, Yıldız et al (2022) reported that a mixture of microplastics (various polymers in sphere and fragment morphologies) did not alter the structure and population dynamics of their experimentally assembled freshwater invertebrate community, although they did find evidence of microplastics entering multiple trophic levels. In contrast to our results, a few studies have found evidence that microplastics affect the abundance of zooplankton and other invertebrates, but this effect thus far has only been reported in benthic communities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We chose to investigate the effects of polyester microplastic fibers because they are one of the most dominant morphologies and polymer types found in the environment (Klasios & Tseng, 2023;Napper et al, 2023) and within organisms (Rebelein et al, 2021). While different polymer types are well represented in micro-and mesocosm studies (Aljaibachi et al, 2020;Rauchschwalbe et al, 2022;Silva et al, 2022;Yıldız et al, 2022), the tested microplastic morphologies have been mostly limited to fragments and spheres, with only Rauchschwalbe et al (2022) including fibrous particles. Despite fibers emerging as a dominant morphology found in nature, studies evaluating fiber toxicity on single species are currently still underrepresented in ecotoxicity research (Bour et al, 2020) and evidently even less represented in community-level studies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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No Effect of Realistic Concentrations of Polyester Microplastic Fibers on Freshwater Zooplankton Communities

Klasios,

Kim,

Tseng

2024

Enviro Toxic and Chemistry

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Zooplankton are a conduit of energy from autotrophic phytoplankton to higher trophic levels, and they can be a primary point of entry of microplastics into the aquatic food chain. Investigating how zooplankton communities are affected by microplastic pollution is thus a key step towards understanding ecosystem‐level effects of these global and ubiquitous contaminants. Although the number of studies investigating the biological effects of microplastics has grown exponentially in the last decade, the majority have used controlled laboratory experiments to quantify the impacts of microplastics on individual species. Given that all organisms live in multi‐species communities in nature, here we use an outdoor 1130L mesocosm experiment to investigate the effects of microplastic exposure on natural assemblages of zooplankton. We endeavored to simulate an environmentally relevant exposure scenario by manually creating ~270,000 0.015mm x 1‐1.5mm polyester fibers and inoculating mesocosms with zero, low (10 particles/L) or high (50 particles/L) concentrations. We recorded zooplankton abundance and community composition three times throughout the 12‐week study. We found no effect of microplastics on zooplankton abundance, Shannon diversity, or Pielou's evenness. NMDS plots also revealed no effects of microplastics on zooplankton community composition. Our study provides a necessary and realistic baseline upon which future studies can build. Because numerous other stressors faced by zooplankton (e.g. food limitation, eutrophication, warming temperatures, pesticides) are likely to exacerbate the effects of microplastics, we caution against concluding that polyester microfibers will always have no effect on zooplankton communities. Instead, we encourage future studies to investigate the triple threats of habitat degradation, climate warming, and microplastic pollution on zooplankton community health.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

No Effect of Realistic Concentrations of Polyester Microplastic Fibers on Freshwater Zooplankton Communities

Klasios,

Kim,

Tseng

2024

Enviro Toxic and Chemistry

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“…We did not take into account the microplastic ingestion by zooplankton species, although they have been reported in laboratory studies (Canniff & Hoang, 2018; Frydkjær et al., 2017). However, a recent in situ mesocosm experimental study suggested that microplastic ingestion by zooplankton could be fairly limited in complex natural habitat with fish (Yıldız et al., 2022). Moreover, while our model assumed non‐consumption of microplastics by the predator species (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, while our model assumed non‐consumption of microplastics by the predator species (i.e. adult perch), microplastic consumption might be possible as a consequence of trophic transfer from consumer species that contain microplastics in their gut (Yıldız et al., 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fish microplastic ingestion may induce tipping points of aquatic ecosystems

Qian,

Zhang,

Chen

et al. 2023

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Microplastics can be ingested by a wide range of aquatic animals. Extensive studies have demonstrated that microplastic ingestion—albeit often not lethal—can affect a range of species life‐history traits. However, it remains unclear how the sublethal effects of microplastics on individual levels scale up to influence ecosystem‐level dynamics through cascading trophic interactions. Here we employ a well‐studied, empirically fed three‐species trophic chain model, which was parameterized to mimic a common type of aquatic ecosystems to examine how microplastic ingestion by fish on an intermediate trophic level can produce cascading effects on the species at both upper and lower trophic levels. We show that gradually increasing microplastics in the ingested substances of planktivorous fish may cause population structure effects such as skewed size distributions (i.e. reduced average body length vs. increased maximal body size), and induce abrupt declines in fish biomass and reproduction. Our model analysis demonstrates that these abrupt changes correspond to an ecosystem‐level tipping point, crossing which difficult‐to‐reverse ecosystem degradation can happen. Importantly, microplastic pollution may interact with other anthropogenic stressors to reduce safe operating space of aquatic ecosystems. Our work contributes to better understanding complex effects of microplastic pollution and anticipating tipping points of aquatic ecosystems in a changing world. It also calls attention to an emerging threat that novel microplastic contaminants may lead to unexpected and abrupt degradation of aquatic ecosystems, and invites systematic studies on the ecosystem‐level consequences of microplastic exposure.

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“…Chironomids are often the most abundant group of macroinvertebrates in the number of species and individuals encountered in freshwater environments, particularly in benthos [ 5 ]. Concerningly, they are also one of the most sensitive groups to the presence of microplastics in sediments, revealing the high ingestion rates, bioaccumulation, and adverse effects in laboratory conditions, when considering life history traits and biochemical/physiological response mechanisms [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ] ( Table 1 ). In addition, the decrease in such organisms (along with other detritivores and shredders) in a mesocosms experiment with contaminated sediments with microplastics (Polyethylene- PE, concentrations from 0.1 to 10 g/kg) significantly (and negatively) affected freshwater macroinvertebrate community (abundance, structure, and composition), although no significant effects on organic matter decomposition nor primary production were denoted potentially due to the short test duration (e.g., [ 13 ]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Polyurethane Small-Sized Microplastics in the Chironomid, Chironomus riparius: Responses at Organismal and Sub-Organismal Levels

Silva

Rodrigues

Rocha-Santos

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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Freshwater provides valuable services and functions to humankind. However, macroinvertebrates that underpin the delivery of many of those ecosystem services and functions are under an additional threat caused by microplastic pollution. Chironomids are one of the most abundant groups of macroinvertebrates in these environments and the most sensitive to microplastics. This investigation addressed the effects of polyurethane (PU-MPs; 7.0–9.0 µm) on the chironomid Chironomus riparius at the organism and sub-organism levels. For this purpose, two assays were carried out: (i) addressing the effects of PU-MPs on C. riparius partial life cycle traits (larval size and emergence parameters) in a 28 d assay considering concentrations up to 750 mg/Kg, and (ii) larvae behaviour (locomotion) as well as the biochemical responses (oxidative damage, aerobic energy production, and energy reserves) in a 10 d assay considering an environmentally relevant concentration with no observed effects on C. riparius previous life history traits (no observed effect concentration; NOEC = (375 mg/kg). Exposure to PU-MPs did not affect C. riparius larval length nor cumulative and time to emergence. Conversely, when exposed to an environmentally relevant concentration for 10 days, contaminated larvae were revealed to be lighter (but not smaller nor less nutritionally affected in terms of energy reserves) and more active when foraging, which was reflected in the activation of their aerobic metabolism when assessing the electron transport chain as a proxy. Notwithstanding, PU-MPs did not originate observable energy costs, either on protein, lipid, or sugar contents on contaminated larvae, which may justify the absence of effects on larval growth and emergence. Therefore, the increased production of energy used for the locomotion and functioning of larvae was at the expense of the fraction of energy that should have been allocated for the weight of the individuals. A long-term exposure involving a multigenerational assessment would bring intel on the potential (cumulative) sub-lethal effects of PU-MPs on C. riparius fitness.

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Effects of a microplastic mixture differ across trophic levels and taxa in a freshwater food web: In situ mesocosm experiment

Cited by 28 publications

References 87 publications

No Effect of Realistic Concentrations of Polyester Microplastic Fibers on Freshwater Zooplankton Communities

No Effect of Realistic Concentrations of Polyester Microplastic Fibers on Freshwater Zooplankton Communities

Fish microplastic ingestion may induce tipping points of aquatic ecosystems

Effects of Polyurethane Small-Sized Microplastics in the Chironomid, Chironomus riparius: Responses at Organismal and Sub-Organismal Levels

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