Exploring transfer of microplastics in the trophic chain: a prey-predator interaction case in the Strait of Messina

Over the last decades, microplastics (MPs) pollution has become a long-term global issue that seriously threatens the biodiversity and health of marine ecosystems. MPs can easily enter in the marine food webs indirectly through predation, undergoing transfer processes along the different trophic levels. In this regard, zooplanktonic organisms could play a key role in the MPs trophic transfer covering an important link between phytoplankton and higher trophic levels. Although many research have focused on accumulation and transport of MPs during experimental trials, only few of them have studied these mechanisms in natural environments food webs. In this study, a two-levels trophic chain - composed by a zooplankton species Thysanopoda aequalis (n= 58 samples) as prey and a mesopelagic fish species Argyropelecus hemigymnus (n=60 samples) as predator – was selected to investigate the MPs trophic transfer in the Strait of Messina food chains. An alkaline digestion protocol and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy were used to extract and characterize the MPs ingested by the two species. The preliminary results showed no differences in abundance and shape of MPs ingested among individual size for both species, whereas fibers dominated in the sorted. Blue, black and white were the predominant colors of MPs in T. aequalis, accounting for 63 Also see: https://micro2024.sciencesconf.org/559683/document