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The abundance of microplastics in cnidaria and ctenophora in the North Sea

Marine Pollution Bulletin 2021 36 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.

Mark G.J. Hartl Angela Capper, Angela Capper, Ria Devereux, Ria Devereux, Angela Capper, Ria Devereux, Ria Devereux, Ria Devereux, Ria Devereux, Mark G.J. Hartl Ria Devereux, Mark G.J. Hartl Mark G.J. Hartl Ria Devereux, Mike Bell, Mike Bell, Mark G.J. Hartl Mark G.J. Hartl Angela Capper, Angela Capper, Angela Capper, Angela Capper, Angela Capper, Angela Capper, Angela Capper, Mark G.J. Hartl Mark G.J. Hartl Mark G.J. Hartl Mark G.J. Hartl Mark G.J. Hartl Mark G.J. Hartl Mark G.J. Hartl

Summary

Researchers found microplastics in cnidarians and ctenophores collected from the North Sea, including jellyfish species and comb jellies, demonstrating that these gelatinous zooplankton ingest plastic particles and may serve as a vector transferring microplastics through marine food webs.

Polymers

HDPE PET PP nylon

Microplastic (MP) ingestion has been widely recorded in aquatic organisms, but few studies focus on cnidarians and ctenophores, which form a significant contribution to marine trophic interactions. Scyphozoans (Cyanea capillata, C. lamarckii and Aurelia aurita), hydrozoan (Cosmetira pilosella) and ctenophores (Beroe cucumis and Pleurobrachia bachei) collected opportunistically from Orkney, Shetland and the North Sea were thermally disintegrated, with a subsample of ingested plastics analysed using FTIR. A total of 1,986 MPs were counted (94% fibres), the majority (84.4%) in the four cnidarian species. Highest MP concentrations were recorded in B. cucumis (0.956 ml), whilst C. pilosella yielded the lowest (0.014 ml). The main polymers in digestate were PET and PP, with 27% discounted as non-plastics. In feeding trials, A. aurita ingested a greater quantity of PET fibres (60-80%), compared to nylon (0%) and HDPE fibres (0%). This study demonstrates cnidarians and ctenophores, a largely overlooked group, are a potential route for MPs entry into food webs.

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