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Multigenerational Toxicity of Weathered Microplastic Fibres Carrying Pharmaceutical Residues in Freshwater Zooplankton Communities
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A lab simulation exposed freshwater zooplankton across multiple generations to weathered microplastic fibers combined with pharmaceutical residues. Survival and other health measures worsened with each generation, and the combination of microplastics and drug residues caused more harm than either contaminant alone.
Microplastic contamination has turned into a significant environmental problem in fresh waters, whereby weathering factors transform the surface characteristics of plastic fibres and enhance their capacity to adsorb pharmaceutical residues. Combination of weathered microplastics and pharmaceutical contaminants might increase the toxic impact on aquatic organisms, especially freshwater zooplankton, which is a primary active participant in nutrient cycling and energy transfer in aquatic food webs. But majority of past research has only focused on the short term or single generation toxicity, and the ecological impact of the toxicity in the long term remains largely uninvestigated. In this study a multigenerational ecotoxicology toxicity of weathered microplastic fibres with pharmaceutical remnants in freshwater zooplankton assemblage is researched with the help of a controlled ecotoxicological-based simulation framework. The combined effects of combined contaminants were also assessed by the multiple exposure concentration on consecutive generations. Primary endpoints (survival rate, mortality rate, median lethal concentration (LC50), median effective concentration (EC50), no observed effect concentration (NOEC), lowest observed effect concentration (LOEC)) were used to measure toxicity. The simulated outcomes show a downward trend in the survival, mortality, lower values of LC50 and EC50, and lower NOEC values in subsequent generations which show the biological sensitivity is increasing with time in the case of continuous exposure. Moreover, exposure to weathered microplastic fibres together with those of pharmaceutical residues had more harmful effects compared to each pollutant. These results highlight the significance of multigenerational assessments within freshwater ecological risk assessments and they offer the scientific foundation of enhancing environmental monitoring, and management of contaminants, and long-term safeguards of freshwater ecosystems.
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