Looking for Nano- and Microplastics in Meiofauna Using Advanced Methodologies

Meiofauna (body size within 30–1000 µm) are the community of microscopic invertebrates that live at the bottom of marine and freshwater ecosystems and play a key role in the food webs of these environments. Several studies have addressed the adverse effects of anthropic stressors on meiofauna; howev...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environments (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2023-05, Vol.10 (5), p.81
Main Authors: Todaro, M. Antonio, Anselmi, Serena, Bentivoglio, Tecla, Pretti, Carlo, Cavallo, Andrea, Renzi, Monia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alcohol
Aquatic ecosystems
Body size
FESEM
Food chains
Food webs
Freshwater ecosystems
Ingestion
Laboratories
Marine ecosystems
meiobenthos
Meiofauna
microplastic
Microplastics
Microscopy
Organisms
Plastic debris
Plastic pollution
Pollutants
Sediments
Spectrum analysis
Tigriopus fulvus
Xenobiotics
µFT-IR
µRAMAN
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Summary:Meiofauna (body size within 30–1000 µm) are the community of microscopic invertebrates that live at the bottom of marine and freshwater ecosystems and play a key role in the food webs of these environments. Several studies have addressed the adverse effects of anthropic stressors on meiofauna; however, data on the presence and impact of plastic debris in wild meiofaunal organisms are scant. Since the amount of microplastic waste in sediments may surge rapidly, ascertaining the ingestion of these xenobiotics by the abundant micrometazoan community is necessary to understand their potential accumulation in aquatic food webs and their hazard to the health of the ecosystem. The absence of documentation in this regard may be due to the difficulty in detecting the small size of the plastic fragments meiofauna may potentially ingest. To overcome this difficulty, we developed an integrated approach based on different microscopic/spectroscopic techniques suitable for detecting plastic particles of sizes down to 200 nm.
ISSN:2076-3298
2076-3298
DOI:10.3390/environments10050081