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The Effect of Polystyrene Microplastics on the Heart Rate In Daphnia Magna
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Tiny water fleas called Daphnia magna were exposed to different amounts of polystyrene microplastics in water. Researchers found that higher levels of microplastics were linked to significant changes in the fleas' heart rate compared to a control group without microplastics.
Large amounts of plastics are created and sloughed into the environment, causing global environmental problems, especially in freshwater ecosystems. Polystyrene microplastics are one of the commonly found microplastics in freshwater ecosystems, and they have caused harm to aquatic organisms. However, scientists do not fully understand the full effects of these microplastics when ingested. The purpose of this project was to acquire a greater understanding of how polystyrene can affect aquatic organisms, specifically the heart rate of Daphnia magna. It was hypothesized that the D. magnas’ heart rate would decrease when higher amounts of polystyrene microplastics are added in the water. Daphnia magna were placed into glass bowls that contained 175 mL of spring water and each bowl contained 30 D. magna. Daphnia food was added into one bowl and the rest of the bowls contained the polystyrene microplastics. The levels of microplastics were calculated by using dimensional analysis from the ratio of polystyrene microplastics to freshwater ecosystems. After experimentation, a one way ANOVA and a Tukey test was done to see if the data was significant. The heart rates were calculated and the tests showed that the heart rates were significantly different; F(2.26)=9.0443, p<0.05. The tukey test showed that there were significant differences between the control versus 26.25mg of microplastics, control versus 43.75mg of microplastics, and 8.75mg of microplastics vs. 43.75mg of microplastics. This shows that polystyrene microplastics have a significant effect on the average heart rate of Daphnia magna.
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