Identificador persistente para citar o vincular este elemento: http://hdl.handle.net/10553/124377
Título: Is Zooplankton an Entry Point of Microplastics into the Marine Food Web?
Autores/as: Gunaalan, Kuddithamby
Nielsen, Torkel Gissel
Rodríguez Torres, Rocío
Lorenz, Claudia
Vianello, Alvise
Andersen, Ceelin Aila
Vollertsen, Jes
Almeda García, Rodrigo 
Clasificación UNESCO: 331210 Plásticos
330811 Control de la contaminación del agua
251001 Oceanografía biológica
Palabras clave: Copepods
Fecal Pellets
Ingestion
Microplastics
Zooplankton
Fecha de publicación: 2023
Proyectos: Impacto de Los Aditivos Lixiviados de Los Microplásticos en El Plancton 
Toward a Risk-Based assessment of microplastic pollution in marine ecosystems (Response) 
Publicación seriada: Environmental science & technology 
Resumen: Microplastics (MPs) overlap in size with phytoplankton and can be ingested by zooplankton, transferring them to higher trophic levels. Copepods are the most abundant metazoans among zooplankton and the main link between primary producers and higher trophic levels. Ingestion of MPs has been investigated in the laboratory, but we still know little about the ingestion of MPs by zooplankton in the natural environment. In this study, we determined the concentration and characteristics of MPs down to 10 μm in zooplankton samples, sorted calanoid copepods, and fecal pellets collected in the Kattegat/Skagerrak Sea (Denmark). We found a median concentration of 1.7 × 10-3 MPs ind-1 in the zooplankton samples, 2.9 × 10-3 MPs ind-1 in the sorted-copepods, and 3 × 10-3 MPs per fecal pellet. Most MPs in the zooplankton samples and fecal pellets were fragments smaller than 100 μm, whereas fibers dominated in the sorted copepods. Based on the collected data, we estimated a MP budget for the surface layer (0-18 m), where copepods contained only 3% of the MPs in the water, while 5% of the MPs were packed in fecal pellets. However, the number of MPs exported daily to the pycnocline via fecal pellets was estimated to be 1.4% of the total MPs in the surface layer. Our results indicate that zooplankton are an entry point of small MPs in the food web, but the number of MPs in zooplankton and their fecal pellets was low compared with the number of MPs found in the water column and the occurrence and/or ingestion of MPs reported for nekton. This suggests a low risk of MP transferring to higher trophic levels through zooplankton and a quantitatively low, but ecologically relevant, contribution of fecal pellets to the vertical exportation of MPs in the ocean.
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10553/124377
ISSN: 1520-5851
DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.3c02575
Fuente: Environmental science & technology [ISSN 1520-5851], v. 57 (31), p. 11643-11655, (Agosto 2023)
Colección:Artículos
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