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An accessible method to standardize polyethylene microsphere (<100 μm) concentrations for zooplankton ingestion experiments
Summary
Researchers developed an accessible standardization protocol for preparing polyethylene microsphere stock solutions for use as microplastic proxies in zooplankton bioassays, without requiring highly specialized equipment. Tests with the calanoid copepod Centropages furcatus at 10 microspheres/mL showed ingestion of 0.9 microspheres/mL of 45–53 µm particles and 2.4 microspheres/mL of 38–45 µm particles, demonstrating the protocol's reproducibility.
The ubiquity of microplastics has caused alarm as to the impact of these materials on aquatic life, leading to experimental studies to understand these effects. In zooplankton bioassays, microspheres (Ms) are often used as a proxy to represent aquatic microplastic contamination due to their homogeneity and small sizes (<100 μm). The present study proposes an accessible protocol that does not require highly specialized equipment for the creation of Ms stock solutions and environmentally realistic experimental concentrations and describes some common issues. Adult females of the calanoid copepod Centropages furcatus underwent treatments of two Ms sizes at experimental concentrations of 10 Ms/mL. They consumed on average 0.9 ± 2.6 Ms/mL of 45-53 μm Ms, and 2.4 ± 1.1 Ms/mL of 38-45 μm Ms. The results are not directly comparable with other studies due to the wide variety of methods used but successfully demonstrate the reproducibility of the proposed protocol.