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Effects of Environmentally-Relevant Concentrations of Microplastic Fibers on Pacific Mole Crab (Emerita analoga) Mortality and Reproduction
Summary
Lab experiments exposed Pacific mole crabs — small filter-feeding crustaceans that live in beach sand — to microplastic fibers at environmentally realistic concentrations and measured effects on mortality, reproductive output, and embryo development. Microfiber exposure significantly reduced reproductive success and caused embryo development abnormalities, suggesting that widespread beach microplastic contamination poses risks to these ecologically important invertebrates.
Microplastics are ubiquitous in marine and sandy beach environments, posing a significant threat to the marine organisms that reside therein. Although a number of biological effects of microplastics have been measured, with documented effects on growth, little research has examined how microplastics affect reproductive output and subsequent development of offspring. We examined the effects of exposure to microfibers on adult mortality, reproductive output, and embryonic development of the filter feeding Pacific mole crab (Emerita analoga), a dominant infaunal organism on sandy beaches.We demonstrate the effects of microplastic ingestion on mole crab mortality and embryonic development, filling a gap in the current knowledge on the impact of microplastics.