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Urban Nanoplastic Contamination Profiles And Ecotoxicity In Experimentally Caged Freshwater Mussels Elliptio complanata
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Scientists found tiny plastic particles (nanoplastics) building up in freshwater mussels living near a big city's stormwater overflow sites, and these mussels showed signs of stress, including DNA damage and disrupted brain-signaling chemicals. This matters because mussels filter water similarly to how our own bodies process contaminants, and their reaction suggests that nanoplastics pouring into waterways during storms could pose real risks to aquatic life and, potentially, anything downstream that relies on that water, including us.
The release and ecotoxicological impacts of combined sewers overflows and treated municipal effluents in respect to plastic nanoparticles (PNPs) in endemic mussels are not well understood.The purpose of this study was to examine the levels of PNPs and toxicity in feral mussels caged at the 2 rainfall overflow, downstream a largely populated (~2 million inhabitants) city and its municipal effluent dispersion plume sites.The mussels were caged for a period of three months during the summer and analyzed for tissue levels of PNPs, air tolerance, morphological changes, oxidative stress, DNA damage and neuroendocrine effects.The data revealed that mussels from rainfall overflow and downstream the city contained PNPs in tissues, had reduced levels in serotonin, elevated levels of zinc binding proteins (metallothioneins), gonad DNA strand breaks and modulated acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activity,an enzyme reported to interact with various nanoparticles.The levels of PNPs were also related to changes in the progression of the AChE reaction rate from crowding/steric effects.This could lead to an hysteresis behavior of AChE where the enzyme is less sensitive to baseline levels of acetylcholine.Conversely, mussels caged at the municipal effluent dispersion plume had lower PNPs with an increase in the deceleration rates in AChE although mussels accumulated high levels of heterotrophic bacteria.This corroborates previous studies showing that the municipal effluents with low hydraulic residency times can reduce plastic materials in the water column.In conclusion, the occurrence of PNPs in mussels is ubiquitous in an urban area where higher levels are found from rainfall overflow sites and downstream a largely populated city.
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