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Daphnia magna clones react differently to microplastics exposure under food limitation
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This study investigated clonal variation in Daphnia magna responses to microplastic exposure combined with food limitation, testing multiple genotypes under identical conditions. Clone-specific sensitivity was substantial, indicating that using a single laboratory strain may not capture the range of ecological responses.
Investigations on the ecotoxicological effects of microplastics (MP) on Daphnia magna report a wide variety of effects. One reason for this is certainly the broad spectrum of physico-chemical properties of diverse MP resulting in different effects. Beyond this, variations in clonal sensitivity to a stressor might be also a reasonable explanation for this observation which might be even more important under multiple stressor conditions. However clonal variability and multiple stressor scenarios are rarely considered in experimental designs, which might reduce environmental relevance and comparability of many MP ecotoxicology studies. To address this research gap, thus, this work aims to: 1) assess the effects of MP particle exposure under food limiting conditions (0.5 mg C L-1 every second day) on two Daphnia magna clonal strains, and, 2) asses the effects of conventional polymers compared to biodegradable and biobased ones (bioplastics). To accomplish the first aim, we exposed daphnids of both clonal strains to two concentrations (500 and 5000 particles mL-1, all particles ¡ 20 µm) of MP from a conventional polymer (PET) and from two bioplastics (PBS and PLA) as well as cellulose fragments as natural reference. The exposure was conducted for 21 days. We investigated life-history traits, growth, and mortality. Results obtained for the separate clones were compared, to evaluate the role of clonal variability in the evaluation of exposure studies with microplastics. Our results show that 1) when comparing the effects of conventional polymers and bioplastics, the latter induced comparable or even increased adverse effects on life history and morphology; 2) the two clones are significantly different in all sublethal parameters. We conclude that genetic variability needs to be considered when assessing toxicity of MP on D. magna, together with a more environmentally relevant set-up, and that bioplastics pose a comparable hazard to the environment as conventional polymers. Also see: https://micro2024.sciencesconf.org/559627/document
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Daphnia magna clones react differently to microplastics exposure under food limitation
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Researchers compared microplastic sensitivity across different clonal genotypes of Daphnia magna under food-limited conditions, finding significant variation among clones. The results suggest that genetic diversity within a species influences population-level vulnerability to microplastic pollution.
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