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Nanoplastics pose a greater effect than microplastics in enhancing mercury toxicity to marine copepods
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Researchers investigated whether nano- and microplastics can act as carriers of mercury, increasing its toxicity to marine copepods. The study found that polystyrene nano- and microplastics significantly increased mercury accumulation in the copepod Tigriopus japonicus, with nanoplastics posing a greater threat than microplastics due to their higher surface-area-to-volume ratio. Evidence indicates that nanoplastics enhanced mercury toxicity by disrupting genes related to development, energy metabolism, and stress defense.
Due to human activities, high abundances of nano/microplastics (N/MPs) concurrent with metal pollution have become a serious problem in the global marine environment. Because of displaying a high surface-area-to-volume ratio, N/MPs can serve as the carriers of metals and thus increase their accumulation/toxicity in marine biota. As one of the most toxic metals, mercury (Hg) causes adverse effects on marine organisms but whether environmentally relevant N/MPs can play a vector role of this metal in marine biota, as well as their interaction, is poorly known. To evaluate the vector role of N/MPs in Hg toxicity, we first performed the adsorption kinetics and isotherms of N/MPs and Hg in seawater, as well as ingestion/egestion of N/MPs by marine copepod Tigriopus japonicus, and second, the copepod T. japonicus was exposed to polystyrene (PS) N/MPs (500-nm, 6-μm) and Hg in isolation, combined, and incubated forms at environmentally relevant concentrations for 48 h. Also, the physiological and defense performance including antioxidant response, detoxification/stress, energy metabolism, and development-related genes were assessed after exposure. The results indicated N/MPs significantly increased Hg accumulation and thus its toxicity effects in T. japonicus as exemplified by decreased transcription of genes related to development and energy metabolism and increased transcriptional levels of genes functioning in antioxidant and detoxification/stress defense. More importantly, NPs were superimposed onto MPs and produced the most vector effect in Hg toxicity to T. japonicus, especially in the incubated forms. Overall, this study highlighted the role of N/MPs as a potential risk factor for increasing the adverse effects of Hg pollution, and emphasized the adsorption forms of contaminants by N/MPs should doubly be considered in the continuing researches.
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Chronic effects of nano and microplastics on reproduction and development of marine copepod Tigriopus japonicus
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Researchers studied the chronic effects of polystyrene nano- and microplastics on the marine copepod Tigriopus japonicus over 30 days. The study found that nanoplastics were more lethal than microplastics, with different sizes affecting survival, development, and reproduction through distinct mechanisms, though oxidative stress was a common factor at high concentrations.
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Researchers exposed tiny marine organisms called copepods to microplastics and mercury together across three generations at levels found in the environment. While microplastics alone had little effect, they made mercury much more toxic by increasing how much mercury built up in the organisms' bodies. This study shows that microplastics can act as carriers that amplify the harmful effects of other environmental pollutants, with the damage worsening over generations.
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