PMID:
Environ Pollut. 2019 Jul 22 ;254(Pt A):112919. Epub 2019 Jul 22. PMID: 31394341
Abstract Title:
Acute and chronic effects of polystyrene microplastics on juvenile and adult Daphnia magna.
Abstract:
We investigate the distribution and effects of polystyrene microplastic (MP) particles in exposure experiments with the ecotoxicology model organism Daphnia magna. The aim was to investigate the short and long-term toxicity of MP at different concentrations. To achieve this goal, the effects of 6 μm commercially available polystyrene beads on two different life-stages of D. magna:30 μg mlshowed higher sensitivity. We observed slightly increased mortality, reduced growth and stimulation of early reproduction at the cost of later reproduction. Animals exposed after reaching adulthood did not show increased mortality and showed a stimulation response with higher reproductive rates than the control group. However, both the growth rate of mother animals and the body size of newborn declined with increasing dose of MP. We conclude that these effects indicate a role of MP in mechanical interaction/interference with the animal on the level of feeding (clogging filtering functions), digestion (gut filled with plastic particles), and/or other animal behavior. The study also illustrates how MP with slow break-down rates may accumulate in the environment and enter the food-chain as obstructing non-food particles in filter-feeding organisms.
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