P17-15: Behavioural response to microplastics: case study with woodlice and daphnids

The combined effect of temperature and microplastics on Daphnia pulex Leydig, 1860 (Cladocera)

AI summary · Read the abstract

Scientists found that tiny water fleas (a key food source for fish) ate significant amounts of microplastic beads, which slowed their heart rates and cut their feeding by more than half, effects that got worse in warmer water. While this study focused on aquatic life rather than humans directly, it matters because these small creatures sit at the bottom of the food chain, so microplastic pollution combined with rising water temperatures could ripple upward and affect the fish and ecosystems that eventually end up on our plates.

Microplastics in terrestrial ecosystems and their effects on macroinvertebrates

Insect Interactions with Microplastics Under Different Ecosystems

AI summary · Read the abstract

This review examines how insects interact with microplastics across aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, including ingestion, bioaccumulation, and trophic transfer to insectivorous predators. Insects are key links in food webs connecting environmental microplastic contamination to vertebrate animals and humans, making their role in microplastic transfer a critical and underappreciated exposure pathway.

Are Daphnia similis Playing a Significant Role in Microplastic Biofragmentation?

AI summary · Read the abstract

Researchers exposing the freshwater microcrustacean Daphnia similis to polystyrene microspheres found that the organisms reduced particle size by nearly 33% over six days through biofragmentation, demonstrating that zooplankton ingestion is an underappreciated pathway for breaking down microplastics into smaller particles.

The Impact of Microplastics on Marine Copepods

AI summary · Read the abstract

Marine copepods, a foundational link in ocean food webs, ingest microplastics alongside natural prey, causing reduced feeding, reproductive impairment, and energy depletion that can cascade up through fish, seabirds, and marine mammals. Because copepods transfer energy from phytoplankton to higher trophic levels, their contamination with microplastics poses systemic risks to entire marine food chains.