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Zooplankton and Neustonic Microplastics in the Surface Layer of Yeosu Coastal Areas
Summary
Microplastics were found coexisting with zooplankton communities in Korean coastal surface waters, with particle feeders like copepods likely ingesting plastics alongside phytoplankton given overlapping size ranges and spatial distributions. Because zooplankton are a critical food source for fish and other marine animals, their exposure to microplastics creates a direct pathway for plastic contamination to move up the food chain to seafood consumed by humans.
In planktonic ecosystems, the microplastics are considered as a potential food source for the zooplankton. To study a relationship between the zooplankton and the neustonic microplastics, a research experiment was carried out during May in the surface layers of the Yeosu coastal areas including Yeoja Bay, Gamak Bay, Yeosuhae Bay, and Botdol Sea. A neustonic zooplankton net (mesh size 300 μm; mouth area 30 cm×18 cm) was towed from the side of the ship in the event that it would not be affected by waves crashing by the ship at a speed of ca. 2.5 knots. All of the microplastic particles were separated from the zooplankton. The zooplankton and microplastics were appearing in a range of 61 to 763 indiv. m-3 and 0.0047 to 0.3471 particle m -2 , respectively. It was noted that the Acartia omorii , Paracalanus parvus s. l., Labidocera euchaeta , A. hongi , decapod larvae, and cirriped larvae were predominantly seen in the experiment. For verifying relationships between zooplankton and environmental factors in addition to microplastics, a model redundancy analysis (RDA) was performed. The zooplankton were divided into two groups on the basis of feeding types (i.e. particle feeders, and carnivores), and the associated zooplankton larvae were also separately considered. A review of the additional environmental factors such as water temperature, salinity, turbidity, chlorophyll -a concentration, diatom density, and dinoflagellate density were also contained in the analysis. The results showed that a noted zooplankton abundance had no close relation with the occurring number of microplastic particles, but rather was significantly related with other noted environmental factors such as temperature, salinity, turbidity, and chlorophyll -a concentration. This fact implies that most zooplankton can feed themselves as a unit, by selecting the most likely available nutritious foods, rather than microplastics under the circumstance of food-richness areas, such what food resources are available as in the location of coastal waters.