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Supplementary material from "Microplastics disrupt hermit crab shell selection"
Summary
Lab experiments showed that hermit crabs exposed to polyethylene microplastic spheres for five days were less likely to investigate, contact, or enter an optimally-sized shell than unexposed crabs. Since shell selection is critical for hermit crab survival, microplastic-induced impairment of this behavior could have meaningful effects on their fitness in polluted environments.
Microplastics (plastics Pagurus bernhardus) as a model to test whether microplastic exposure impacts the essential survival behaviours of contacting, investigating and entering an optimal shell. We kept 64 female hermit crabs in tanks containing either polyethylene spheres (n = 35) or no plastic (n = 29) for 5 days. We then transferred subjects into suboptimal shells and placed them in an observation tank with an optimal alternative shell. Plastic-exposed hermit crabs showed impaired shell selection: they were less likely than controls to contact optimal shells or enter them. They also took longer to contact and enter the optimal shell. Plastic exposure did not affect time spent investigating the optimal shell. These results indicate that microplastics impair cognition (information-gathering and processing), disrupting an essential survival behaviour in hermit crabs.