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Beyond Abiotic Decay: Fiddler Crabs Accelerate Plastic Fragmentation in Pollution Hotspots
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Researchers found that fiddler crabs mechanically accelerate plastic fragmentation in mangrove forests — recognized plastic sequestration hotspots — through their burrowing and feeding activities. The study demonstrates that these ecosystem engineer crabs, which thrive in plastic-pollution hotspots, actively contribute to microplastic generation, potentially amplifying plastic contamination in coastal sediments.
Mangrove forests are recognized as plastic sequestration hotspots, particularly in urbanized areas, which may contain up to two orders of magnitude more plastic litter. Fiddler crab populations, known as ecosystem engineers, are thriving precisely in these expanding plastic-pollution hotspots, prompting inquiry into how these creatures navigate the substantial plastic loads within sediments they have evolved to inhabit and feed upon. To investigate this, we released two types of unaged, fluorescently labeled polyethylene microspheres (hereafter, "microspheres")-green (20-27 μm diameter) and red (75-90 μm diameter)-into polluted urban mangroves inhabited by the fiddler crab Minuca vocator. The microsphere sizes were chosen to mimic the natural range of food particle sizes encountered by these crabs. This field experiment tracked the uptake and fate of microspheres in the crabs' hepatopancreas, gills, hindgut, and the sediments over 66 days. Microspheres were incorporated by most crabs (91 out of 95), with uptake markedly higher in the hindgut (26.04 ± 1.19 SE microspheres g-1) and hepatopancreas (10.07 ± 1.19) than in the gills (0.86 ± 0.20). The average uptake of microplastics, 48.67 (±7.24 SE) per crab was more than 16 times higher than the density in the sediment (2.92 microspheres g-1), and represents one of the highest uptakes ever recorded in nature. Approximately 15% of this load, primarily located in the hepatopancreas, was found in a fragmented state, suggesting degradation through digestive processes. Microspheres fragmented by digestive processes were detectable in mangrove sediments within just 14 days, challenging the notion that plastic degradation is a long-term process driven mainly by abiotic aging over decades. Combined with the widespread presence of fiddler crabs along coastlines acting as plastic sinks, these findings suggest that biotic fragmentation is an important pathway for the degradation of plastics entering the ocean.
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Ecosystem engineers come to town: how fiddler crabs thriving in heavily polluted urban mangroves process plastic particles
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Researchers tracked the uptake and fate of labelled polyethylene microspheres released into plastic-polluted urban mangroves inhabited by the fiddler crab Minuca vocator over 66 days, recording one of the highest microplastic uptake levels ever observed in a wild organism at 48.7 particles per crab. The findings reveal how ecosystem engineers like fiddler crabs can bioturbate and redistribute microplastics through sediment reworking, with implications for both crab health and sediment-level microplastic dynamics.
Can fiddler crab bioturbation activity in situ modify the distribution of microplastics in sediments and the influence on their bioaccumulation?
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Researchers examined fiddler crab (Minuca rapax) bioturbation in mangrove sediments of the southern Gulf of Mexico, finding that crab burrowing activity concentrated microplastics in burrow sediments and that the characteristics of microplastics ingested by the crabs reflected those found in burrows, with the degree of bioturbation-driven MP concentration varying with local urbanization levels.
Ecosystem engineers come to town: how fiddler crabs thriving in heavily polluted urban mangroves process plastic particles
AI summary Read the abstract
Researchers tracked the uptake and fate of labeled polyethylene microspheres in the fiddler crab Minuca vocator in heavily polluted urban mangroves over 66 days, finding one of the highest microplastic ingestion rates ever recorded in nature (48.7 particles per crab) and examining how these ecosystem engineers process plastic-laden sediments.
Fiddler crabs (Tubuca arcuata) as bioindicators of microplastic pollution in mangrove sediments
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Researchers used fiddler crabs as bioindicators of microplastic pollution in mangrove sediments, finding that crab tissue microplastic loads correlated with sediment contamination levels and reflected spatial differences in pollution across mangrove sites.
Can the bioturbation activity of the fiddler crab Minuca rapax modify the distribution of microplastics in sediments?
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Researchers investigated whether the bioturbation activity of the fiddler crab Minuca rapax can modify the distribution of microplastics in sediments along an urbanization gradient in the Gulf of Mexico. The study compared microplastic concentrations between burrows, feeding pellets, and crab tissues, finding that microplastics were more abundant and diverse in burrows. Evidence indicates that fiddler crab burrowing and feeding behaviors actively redistribute microplastics within coastal sediments.
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