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Determining microplastics bioaccumulation in Babylonia spirata adopting nuclear analysis technique
Summary
Scientists used a radioactive tracking method to see how much microplastic builds up in a type of sea snail, finding that the snails absorbed more of it depending on the saltiness of the water and how much microplastic was around. This matters because these snails are eaten by other animals (and sometimes people), meaning microplastics could be working their way up the food chain into our seafood.
The purpose of this study is to measure the bioaccumulation of iodine-131-labeled polystyrene sulfonate as a microplastic model using nuclear techniques. The biokinetic analysis in this study includes bioaccumulation and depuration of iodine-131-labeled polystyrene sulfonate influenced by the variation of seawater salinity and microplastic concentration. Biokinetic calculations include concentration factor, uptake constant, depuration, elimination constant, and biological half-life. The experimental results showed that the highest bioaccumulation of iodine-131-labeled polystyrene sulfonate was found at a salinity of 32 g·L−1 (5.1 × 10−5 mL·g−1) and at a microplastic concentration of 3.85 mg·L−1 (2.88 × 10−5 mL·g−1). The experimental results show that microplastics were accumulated in B. spirata, and might enter the food chain in the marine ecosystem.