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Responses of different species of marine microalgae and their community to gear-derived microplastics

Water Research 2025 6 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 63 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.

Xia Liu, Meng Wang, Tongtao Yue, Meng Wang, Tongtao Yue, Xia Liu, Jian Zhao, Jianjun Wang Jian Zhao, Hongmei Tan, Yanhui Dai, Hongmei Tan, Yanhui Dai, Jian Zhao, Shi-Yang Jiang, Dongfang Xu, Dongfang Xu, Zhuomiao Liu, Tongtao Yue, Tongtao Yue, Xia Liu, Zhuomiao Liu, Jianjun Wang Shi-Yang Jiang, Dongfang Xu, Dongfang Xu, Hongmei Tan, Jian Zhao, Jian Zhao, Jian Zhao, Hao Wang, Xia Liu, Zhuomiao Liu, Hongmei Tan, Zhuomiao Liu, Dongfang Xu, Dongfang Xu, Zhuomiao Liu, Jian Zhao, Jian Zhao, Zhuomiao Liu, Jian Zhao, Dongfang Xu, Jian Zhao, Tongtao Yue, Jianjun Wang Dongfang Xu, Zhuomiao Liu, Hongmei Tan, Jian Zhao, Jian Zhao, Hao Wang, Jianjun Wang Jian Zhao, Jian Zhao, Jianjun Wang Jianjun Wang Jianjun Wang Jianjun Wang Yanhui Dai, Zhuomiao Liu, Jian Zhao, Jianjun Wang Xia Liu, Tongtao Yue, Jianjun Wang Jian Zhao, Jian Zhao, Zhuomiao Liu, Zhuomiao Liu, Yanhui Dai, Yanhui Dai, Jian Zhao, Yanhui Dai, Yanhui Dai, Yanhui Dai, Kaiyin Song, Kaiyin Song, Xia Liu, Tongtao Yue, Tongtao Yue, Zhuomiao Liu, Zhuomiao Liu, Dongfang Xu, Zhuomiao Liu, Zhuomiao Liu, Jian Zhao, Zhuomiao Liu, Jian Zhao, Jian Zhao, Dongfang Xu, Xia Liu, Yanhui Dai, Tongtao Yue, Tongtao Yue, Tongtao Yue, Tongtao Yue, Zhuomiao Liu, Bowen Zhang, Jian Zhao, Jian Zhao, Jian Zhao, Zhuomiao Liu, Zhuomiao Liu, Jian Zhao, Jian Zhao, Yanhui Dai, Yanhui Dai, Yanhui Dai, Tongtao Yue, Tongtao Yue, Tongtao Yue, Xia Liu, Xia Liu, Zhuomiao Liu, Yanhui Dai, Meng Wang, Zhuomiao Liu, Tongtao Yue, Zhuomiao Liu, Jian Zhao, Jian Zhao, Zhuomiao Liu, Jian Zhao, Tongtao Yue, Jian Zhao, Tongtao Yue, Yanhui Dai, Zhuomiao Liu, Zhuomiao Liu, Tongtao Yue, Xia Liu, Yanhui Dai, Yanhui Dai, Tongtao Yue, Tongtao Yue, Jian Zhao, Jian Zhao, Zhuomiao Liu, Jian Zhao, Jian Zhao, Jian Zhao, Yanhui Dai, Tongtao Yue, Tongtao Yue, Yanhui Dai, Jian Zhao, Jian Zhao, Tongtao Yue, Jian Zhao, Jianjun Wang

Summary

Researchers tested how microplastics from fishing gear affected four species of marine microalgae and found that smaller particles were more toxic, significantly slowing algae growth and damaging their cells. When introduced to a mixed algae community, the microplastics shifted which species dominated and actually increased overall community diversity. Since microalgae are the foundation of the ocean food web, these changes could ripple through marine ecosystems and affect the seafood humans consume.

The impact of gear-derived microplastics (MPs) on microalgal community stability is unknown. In this work, three types of gear-derived MPs were obtained from floats, pallets, and tires. After exposure to individual microalgal species (Phaeodactylum tricornutum, Chaetoceros curvisetus, Chlorella vulgaris, Isochrysis galbana), small-sized MPs (22 μm) exhibited stronger toxicity than large-sized MPs (135 μm), and the toxicity was MPs concentration independent. The three MPs (1 mg/L) significantly inhibited the growth of P. trichodinium, C. curvisetus and I. galbana. P. tricornutum was the most sensitive species, and the MPs decreased its chl a content, increased ROS level and reduced membrane integrity. Strong heteroaggregation with MPs is a cause of the observed toxicity. Furthermore, algal community was constructed using these four algal species, and P. tricornutum became the dominant species after community stability. After 96-h exposure to small-sized MPs at all the tested concentrations, the proportion of P. tricornutum highly decreased, thus increasing community stability and diversity maintenance. Photo-aging (20 days) further decreased algal number in the community from 16.54 % (original MPs) to 25.12 % (photo-aged MPs), while the Shannon diversity index increased from 0.93 to 0.99. The introduction of harmful algae (Alexandrium tamarense) decreased total algal number in algal community by 45.10 %, and led to the replacement of dominant species to C. vulgaris. Interestingly, algal number after the exposure of MPs and aged MPs recovered by 7.59 % and 14.71 %, respectively. This work provides useful information on the risk of gear-derived MPs to microalgal community in marine environments (especially mariculture areas).

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