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Fish size influences microplastic occurrence in target organs
Summary
Researchers examined whether fish body size affects microplastic occurrence in target organs, moving beyond gut content analysis to assess systemic tissue contamination. Larger fish contained more microplastics in their organs than smaller fish, suggesting size-dependent differences in cumulative lifetime exposure.
Nowadays microplastic (MPs) contamination is ubiquitous and it represents a risk for biota, especially for the aquatic ones, due to the high probability of MP ingestion. However, the analyses of the gut contents of riverine fish could not be exhaustive in evaluating the effective MP contamination. The risk of bioaccumulation, biomagnification, and transfer along the food web could be more effectively assessed by investigating the presence and translocation of MPs in the different organs, nowadays still scarcely reported and with data conflicting between experimental and field observations. In this framework, the aim of this study was to investigate the MP concentration in target organs, such as the brain, liver, kidney, gonads, fillet, and gastrointestinal tract (GIT), in two different fish size classes, juveniles and adults of Alburnus arborella (Leuciscidae) (n=56), an invertivore, column-feeder fish. Specimens were collected in the Tiber River urban tract, inside the city of Rome (Italy). Data are shown in terms of presence (n. items/individual), concentration (n. items/organ wet weight), size (max length), and shape (film, fiber, filament, foam, sphere, fragment, pellet). The MP interception was found in 75 Also see: https://micro2024.sciencesconf.org/559707/document