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Interactive effects of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) microplastics and salinity variation on a marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum

Chemosphere 2021 35 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 40 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.
Jinwei Dong, Linqing Li, Qiaoqiao Liu, Mengting Yang, Zheng Gao, Pingkang Qian, Kun Gao, Xiang-Yuan Deng

Summary

Researchers found that PMMA microplastics combined with salinity stress had interactive toxic effects on the marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum, with combined stressors causing greater growth inhibition and oxidative damage than either factor alone.

Polymers

Until now, knowledge about the interactive effects of microplastics and environmental factors on primary producers is quite limited. In this work, a marine diatom (Phaeodactylum tricornutum) was exposed to polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) microplastics at different salinities (25, 35, and 45‰) for 10 days in order to study their interactive effects. Results showed that growth of P. tricornutum was negatively affected by PMMA microplastics and salinity variation with a minimum EC value of 91.75 mg L. Photosynthetic activity of P. tricornutum was also inhibited by the two factors, and their interactive effects on chlorophyll fluorescence parameters (F/F and Φ) were significant. In the algal cells, soluble protein accumulated, activities of two antioxidant enzymes changed, and malondialdehyde (MDA) content increased when this diatom was exposed to the microplastics at different salinities. These data would help to evaluate the risks of microplastics to primary producers under different environmental factors.

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