Impacts of microplastic ingestion on fish communities in Haizhou Bay, China
(2024) In Journal of Hazardous Materials 480.- Abstract
Microplastics are pervasive throughout aquatic ecological communities. While their negative impacts on the life history traits of aquatic species are well studied, the effects on community dynamics remain elusive. Consequently, community-level assessments of microplastic effects on marine food webs are largely lacking, creating significant knowledge gaps regarding marine ecosystem structure and dynamics in the context of microplastic contamination. Here we expand a multispecies size-spectrum model by incorporating microplastic impacts on individual life-history traits, ultimately allowing us to study microplastic-mediated structural and functional changes in fish communities. As expected, microplastic ingestion may drive species... (More)
Microplastics are pervasive throughout aquatic ecological communities. While their negative impacts on the life history traits of aquatic species are well studied, the effects on community dynamics remain elusive. Consequently, community-level assessments of microplastic effects on marine food webs are largely lacking, creating significant knowledge gaps regarding marine ecosystem structure and dynamics in the context of microplastic contamination. Here we expand a multispecies size-spectrum model by incorporating microplastic impacts on individual life-history traits, ultimately allowing us to study microplastic-mediated structural and functional changes in fish communities. As expected, microplastic ingestion may drive species extinction, but the microplastic-to-food ratio threshold for extinction is species-specific, and not necessarily correlated with species’ asymptotic weights. Interestingly, species responses to microplastics also propagate through the community as ingestion triggers both bottom-up and top-down effects on community dynamics. Which specific type of cascading effect is dominating depends on which species is ingesting microplastics as well as its trophic role in the community. Generally, low-trophic-level species ingesting microplastics can exert large detrimental effects on community biomass. Thus, this study highlights the necessity for a comprehensive risk assessment of species-specific responses to microplastic contamination as well as an understanding of individual species’ role in their communities.
(Less)
- author
- Chen, Yuxin ; Wu, Dan ; Zhang, Lai ; Yang, Zichun ; Zhou, Famin ; Kortsch, Susanne and Pontarp, Mikael LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024-12-05
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Life history traits, Marine fish communities, Microplastics, Size-spectrum model, Trophic cascading interaction
- in
- Journal of Hazardous Materials
- volume
- 480
- article number
- 136067
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:39388863
- scopus:85205702908
- ISSN
- 0304-3894
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.136067
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- d4775e5b-1dae-405b-a0d4-b60ea078dab0
- date added to LUP
- 2024-11-27 15:23:21
- date last changed
- 2025-07-10 10:05:51
@article{d4775e5b-1dae-405b-a0d4-b60ea078dab0,
abstract = {{<p>Microplastics are pervasive throughout aquatic ecological communities. While their negative impacts on the life history traits of aquatic species are well studied, the effects on community dynamics remain elusive. Consequently, community-level assessments of microplastic effects on marine food webs are largely lacking, creating significant knowledge gaps regarding marine ecosystem structure and dynamics in the context of microplastic contamination. Here we expand a multispecies size-spectrum model by incorporating microplastic impacts on individual life-history traits, ultimately allowing us to study microplastic-mediated structural and functional changes in fish communities. As expected, microplastic ingestion may drive species extinction, but the microplastic-to-food ratio threshold for extinction is species-specific, and not necessarily correlated with species’ asymptotic weights. Interestingly, species responses to microplastics also propagate through the community as ingestion triggers both bottom-up and top-down effects on community dynamics. Which specific type of cascading effect is dominating depends on which species is ingesting microplastics as well as its trophic role in the community. Generally, low-trophic-level species ingesting microplastics can exert large detrimental effects on community biomass. Thus, this study highlights the necessity for a comprehensive risk assessment of species-specific responses to microplastic contamination as well as an understanding of individual species’ role in their communities.</p>}},
author = {{Chen, Yuxin and Wu, Dan and Zhang, Lai and Yang, Zichun and Zhou, Famin and Kortsch, Susanne and Pontarp, Mikael}},
issn = {{0304-3894}},
keywords = {{Life history traits; Marine fish communities; Microplastics; Size-spectrum model; Trophic cascading interaction}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{12}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Journal of Hazardous Materials}},
title = {{Impacts of microplastic ingestion on fish communities in Haizhou Bay, China}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.136067}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.136067}},
volume = {{480}},
year = {{2024}},
}