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Microplastic contamination in sediments and bivalves from a litter-retaining Scottish sea loch: body-size scaling and growth-related traits
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Researchers measured microplastics in beach sediment and in cockles and mussels from a Scottish sea loch. All samples contained microplastics, and smaller animals tended to have higher microplastic levels per gram of tissue. In mussels, higher tissue microplastic levels were linked to lower growth, though the study could not prove microplastics caused this.
ABSTRACT Microplastic pollution is widespread in coastal environments, yet its relationship with organism-level variation under natural field conditions remains poorly understood. This study quantified microplastic contamination in intertidal sediments and two bivalve species, cockles ( Cerastoderma edule ) and mussels ( Mytilus edulis ), from Arrochar, a semi-enclosed sea loch on the west coast of Scotland. Microplastic burdens were measured in 120 sediment samples, 115 cockles and 182 mussels. We examined whether tissue microplastic burden was associated with individual wet mass and local sediment microplastic concentration, and whether sediment or tissue microplastic measures were associated with lifetime average growth-related traits. Microplastics were detected in all sediment samples and in all sampled cockles and mussels. Sediment microplastic concentrations ranged from 0.25 to more than 9.00 particles g -1 dry sediment. Mean tissue microplastic density was 0.63 particles g -1 wet tissue in cockles and 1.99 particles g -1 wet tissue in mussels. Total tissue microplastic count showed no relationship with wet mass or sediment microplastic concentration in either species. Tissue microplastic density declined with increasing wet mass in both species, but in cockles this decline became steeper at higher sediment microplastic concentrations. Growth-related associations also differed between species. In cockles, the relationship between wet mass and length-based growth differed according to sediment microplastic concentration measured four months before bivalve collection, whereas weight-based growth was associated with wet mass alone. In mussels, higher tissue microplastic density was associated with lower length- and weight-based growth values, while tissue microplastic count showed no association with either growth-related trait. Although the study was observational and cannot establish causation, the negative relationships between mussel tissue MP density and both growth-related traits are consistent with effects reported in experimental studies of microplastic exposure in bivalves. However, the association may also reflect an unmeasured factor associated with both growth and tissue MP burden. These findings demonstrate widespread microplastic contamination at Arrochar, but show that relationships between environmental contamination, body size, tissue burden and growth-related traits are species- and metric-specific. Sediment microplastic concentration did not alone explain tissue burden, and absolute particle count and mass-normalised tissue density produced contrasting biological patterns. Accounting for body size and the choice of tissue-burden metric is therefore essential when interpreting microplastic contamination and growth-related associations in wild bivalves.
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