Microplastic ingestion by Atlantic chub mackerel (Scomber colias) in the Canary Islands coast

Herrera, Alicia; Ŝtindlová, A.; Martínez, Ico; Rapp, Jorge; Romero-Kutzner, Vanesa; Samper, María Dolores; Montoto, Tania; Aguiar‐González, Borja; Packard, Theodore T.; Gómez, May

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2018.12.022

Cited by 114 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…In contrast, 50% of the fish fed successive meals of the C SC diet retained an average of 3.3 particles/fish after the end of the experiment. The number of particles found in the intestine after multiple meals is consistent with that found in field studies, in which an average of 0 to 3 particles 34,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] was documented. The low number of particles found in the digestive tract may be indicative of the short residence time of MPs within the GITs of fish.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

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An end to the controversy over the microscopic detection and effects of pristine microplastics in fish organs

Sales‐Ribeiro

Brito‐Casillas

Fernandez

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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The aquatic environment and the associated fish assemblages are being exposed to an increasing amount of microplastics. Despite the high number of publications on the presence of microplastics in fish, little is known about their uptake, translocation and accumulation within fish organs. Experimental studies on the detection and effects of pristine microplastics in fish have shown controversial and ambiguous results, respectively. Here, we conducted two experiments to detect and assess the impacts of dietary exposure of Danio rerio to different types of pristine microplastics. Our results show that D. rerio recognizes plastic particles as inedible materials but ingests them when mixed with food or fish oil. Accidental ingestion occurs in fish exposed to relatively small (1-5 µm) microplastic particles without associated food or fish oil. Additionally, D. rerio effectively eliminated pristine microplastics 24 h after ingestion; however, retention time was associated with increasing particle size and the intake of additional meals. Clinical signs, such as anorexia and lethargy, are present in fish fed relatively large microplastics (120-220 µm). The ingestion of microplastics does not induce any histopathological changes. To the best of our knowledge, we are able, for the first time, to fully demonstrate the uptake and translocation of plastic microbeads using confocal microscopy. Our results question the findings of previous studies on the detection and effects of pristine microplastics in fish and state that inaccurate interpretations of the histological findings regarding microplastics in fish organs is a prevalent flaw in the current scientific literature. The ever-growing production of plastics 1,2 and their relatively short lifespan 3 , combined with indiscriminate waste-disposal practices and accidental releases 1 , have led to the accumulation of plastics in aquatic environments worldwide 4-9. This situation is especially worrisome due to their long degradation time 2 and potential to be ingested by aquatic organisms 3. In water, plastics undergo weathering 10 through photolytic, mechanical and biological degradation 11,12. Under these circumstances, larger plastics degrade into smaller fragments 12 , i.e., microplastics (MPs) (< 5 mm) 13. Another source of MPs in aquatic environments is micro-sized particles intentionally manufactured for use in domestic products (e.g., cosmetics and clothing) and industrial products (media blasting and industrial feedstock) 11,12 , which are directly introduced into the environment by human activity 10. MPs can display a variety of shapes, sizes and colours 12. In aquatic systems, the predominant shapes of MPs are fibres 14-18 , fragments 6,7,19,20 and microbeads 21. The small size and ubiquity of MPs 22 makes them easily available to aquatic fauna, which are prone to ingest them by confusion with food, accidental ingestion or by transfer through the food chain 23,24. Several studies have documented the ingestion of plastic and MP particles in aquatic species (invertebrat...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…www.nature.com/scientificreports/ fish ranged from 0 to 3 items/fish 34,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] . The low number of particles suggests that the potential for accumulation of MPs in the GITs of fish is close to zero and that the presence of MPs in the GITs is indicative of a recent ingestion 23 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

An end to the controversy over the microscopic detection and effects of pristine microplastics in fish organs

Sales‐Ribeiro

Brito‐Casillas

Fernandez

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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“…For catches of Atlantic chub mackerel, Ref. [52] found numbers comparable to Yuan et al [51] by visual sorting confirmed by FTIR. Overall, this places the amount of MPs identified in the fauna of the stormwater pond higher than what has been reported for fish in other studies.…”

Section: Faunasupporting

confidence: 62%

Microplastics in a Stormwater Pond

Olesen

Stephansen

Alst

et al. 2019

Water

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Large amounts of microplastics (MPs) enter our environment through runoff from urban areas. This study presents results for MPs in stormwater from a wet retention pond in terms of its water, sediments, and vertebrate fauna. The analysis was done for the size range 10–500 μm, applying a focal-plane array-based µFourier transform infrared (FPA-µFTIR) imaging technique with automated data analysis. Sample preparation protocols were optimized towards this analytical method. The study revealed 270 item L−1 in the pond water, corresponding to 4.2 µg L−1. The MPs in the pond were highly concentrated in its sediments, reaching 0.4 g kg−1, corresponding to nearly 106 item kg−1. MPs also accumulated in vertebrates from the pond—three-spined sticklebacks and young newts. In terms of particle numbers, this accumulation reached levels nearly as high as in the sediments. The size of the MPs in the pond water and its fauna was quite similar and significantly smaller than the MPs in the sediments. A rough estimate on MPs retention in the pond indicated that MPs were retained at efficiencies similar to that of other particulate materials occurring in the stormwater runoff.

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“…MP abundance found in the coastal pelagic fish species caught off Atlanto‐Iberian was in agreement with concentrations found in digestive tract of other pelagic fish species from the Portuguese coastal and estuarine waters (Neves et al ; Bessa et al ) and from western Spanish Mediterranean coast (Compa et al ). Conversely, Herrera et al () reported high numbers of MP per stomach for chub mackerel in the Canary Islands coast while Neves et al () found lower numbers of MP in stomachs of horse mackerel and Atlantic mackerel. Differences among studies can be related with environmental and ecological factors, given that vertical migration and trophic ecology of populations of the same fish species are known to vary seasonally (Garrido et al ) and spatially (Costalago et al ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Microplastic ingestion and diet composition of planktivorous fish

Lopes

Raimundo

Caetano

et al. 2020

Limnol Oceanogr Letters

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Microplastics (MP) pollution in marine ecosystems is a worldwide problem. Factors that influence their ingestion by different fish species are still not well understood. To our knowledge, this is the first work coupling MP accumulation and a full taxonomic description of planktivorous fish diet. We found that MP accumulation was more associated with prey size consumed by fish than with prey type, and species depending on larger mesozooplankton prey accumulated more MP than those dependent on smaller planktonic prey. We identify horse mackerel as a suitable bioindicator for MP monitoring in the pelagic Iberian ecosystem. AbstractPlanktivorous pelagic fish are susceptible to accumulating microplastics (MP), which have the same size range as their prey and accumulate in their feeding and spawning grounds. We analyzed stomach contents of pelagic fish (European sardine, horse mackerel, anchovy, chub mackerel, Atlantic mackerel, and bogue) from Atlanto-Iberian waters to investigate the relationship between MP ingestion, their diet composition and select a potential bioindicator. We found significant differences between diet of the studied fish species in terms of prey type and size. MP ingestion was significantly related to diet composition. Species with diets that include smaller prey (European sardine, chub mackerel, and bogue) had lower MP concentration in the stomachs than fish depending on larger mesozooplanktonic prey. Horse mackerel had the highest proportion of larger prey (> 1000 μm) and the highest MP abundance in the stomachs, and thus are a suitable bioindicator for MP monitoring in the pelagic Iberian ecosystem.

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Microplastic ingestion by Atlantic chub mackerel (Scomber colias) in the Canary Islands coast

Cited by 114 publications

References 65 publications

An end to the controversy over the microscopic detection and effects of pristine microplastics in fish organs

An end to the controversy over the microscopic detection and effects of pristine microplastics in fish organs

Microplastics in a Stormwater Pond

Microplastic ingestion and diet composition of planktivorous fish

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