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Tier 2
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Original research — experimental, observational, or case-control study. Direct primary evidence.
Detection Methods
Gut & Microbiome
Marine & Wildlife
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Microplastics absent from reef fish in the Marshall Islands: Multistage screening methods reduced false positives
Marine Pollution Bulletin2023
3 citations
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Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count.
Score: 45
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0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.
Eileen M. Nalley,
Katherine R. Shaw,
Katherine R. Shaw,
Jonathan Whitney,
Jennifer M. Lynch
Katherine R. Shaw,
Katherine R. Shaw,
Katherine R. Shaw,
Jennifer M. Lynch
Katherine R. Shaw,
Jennifer M. Lynch
Jennifer M. Lynch
Jonathan Whitney,
Katherine R. Shaw,
Katherine R. Shaw,
Katherine R. Shaw,
Raquel N. Corniuk,
Jonathan Whitney,
Jonathan Whitney,
Raquel N. Corniuk,
Rachel Sandquist,
Rachel Sandquist,
Rachel Sandquist,
Rachel Sandquist,
Raquel N. Corniuk,
Raquel N. Corniuk,
Raquel N. Corniuk,
Raquel N. Corniuk,
Eileen M. Nalley,
Raquel N. Corniuk,
Raquel N. Corniuk,
Raquel N. Corniuk,
Raquel N. Corniuk,
Eileen M. Nalley,
Jennifer M. Lynch
Raquel N. Corniuk,
Raquel N. Corniuk,
Kellie Teague,
Kellie Teague,
Raquel N. Corniuk,
Raquel N. Corniuk,
Madeline C. Schmidbauer,
Madeline C. Schmidbauer,
Kellie Teague,
Kellie Teague,
Kellie Teague,
Madeline C. Schmidbauer,
Madeline C. Schmidbauer,
Jesse Black,
Jesse Black,
Raquel N. Corniuk,
Raquel N. Corniuk,
Kellie Teague,
Jesse Black,
Jesse Black,
Jennifer M. Lynch
Megan J. Donahue,
Jennifer M. Lynch
Megan J. Donahue,
Jennifer M. Lynch
Jesse Black,
Jesse Black,
Kellie Teague,
Jennifer M. Lynch
Kellie Teague,
Kellie Teague,
Kellie Teague,
Jesse Black,
Jesse Black,
Raquel N. Corniuk,
Raquel N. Corniuk,
Rachel Sandquist,
Rachel Sandquist,
Megan J. Donahue,
Rachel Sandquist,
Raquel N. Corniuk,
Rachel Sandquist,
Raquel N. Corniuk,
Jennifer M. Lynch
Jennifer M. Lynch
Kellie Teague,
Kellie Teague,
Kellie Teague,
Kellie Teague,
Rachel Sandquist,
Rachel Sandquist,
Rachel Sandquist,
Rachel Sandquist,
Catherine M. Pirkle,
Catherine M. Pirkle,
Catherine M. Pirkle,
Katherine R. Shaw,
Katherine R. Shaw,
Catherine M. Pirkle,
Rachel Dacks,
Rachel Dacks,
Max Sudnovsky,
Max Sudnovsky,
Max Sudnovsky,
Max Sudnovsky,
Jennifer M. Lynch
Jennifer M. Lynch
Jennifer M. Lynch
Jennifer M. Lynch
Megan J. Donahue,
Jennifer M. Lynch
Summary
A multi-stage screening study of reef fish gut contents from the Marshall Islands found no microplastics in 97 fish across nine species, suggesting that apparent microplastics in prior studies may largely reflect contamination or misidentification rather than true ingestion.
Island communities, like the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), depend on marine resources for food and economics, so plastic ingestion by those resources is a concern. The gastrointestinal tracts of nine species of reef fish across five trophic groups (97 fish) were examined for plastics >1 mm. Over 2100 putative plastic particles from 72 fish were identified under light microscopy. Only 115 of these from 47 fish passed a plastic screening method using Fourier-transform infrared microspectroscopy (μFTIR) in reflectance mode. All of these were identified as natural materials in a final confirmatory analysis, attenuated total reflectance FTIR. The high false-positive rate of visual and μFTIR methods highlight the importance of using multiple polymer identification methods. Limited studies on ingested plastic in reef fish present challenging comparisons because of different methods used. No plastic >1 mm were found in the RMI reef fish, reassuring human consumers.