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Microplastics disturb the anthozoan-algae symbiotic relationship
Summary
Microplastics were found to suppress the establishment of symbiotic relationships between anthozoan hosts (sea anemone and coral) and algae (Symbiodiniaceae), with both direct microsphere exposure and indirect exposure through microsphere-fed prey reducing symbiont infectivity. The study provides first evidence that microplastics can disrupt the initiation of coral-algae symbiosis, a fundamental process underpinning coral reef ecosystem function.
World production of plastic has dramatically increased from the 1950's and now it reaches approximately 311 million tons per year. The resulting accumulation of small plastic detritus less than 5 mm in size, termed "microplastics", has started threatening the life cycles of marine organisms. Here we show the first evidence that microplastics disturb the initiation of symbiotic relationships in anthozoan-algae symbiosis. We found in both the aposymbiotic sea-anemone Aiptasia sp. and the coral Favites chinensis that the infectivity of symbiotic algae into the host is severely suppressed by microspheres fed either directly or indirectly through microsphere-fed Artemia sp. Similar trends were seen when microplastics collected from commercial facewash were used instead of microspheres. Therefore, ongoing accumulation of microplastics in the ocean might disturb the healthy anthozoan-algae symbiotic relationships, which are cornerstones of the biologically enriched coral reef ecosystem.