Friday June 16, 2023
PhysOrg —
In a new study, marine biologist Carolin Müller of the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) demonstrates the ingestion of microplastic particles by juvenile sea bream. She also investigated which environmental factors determine whether the young stages of the fish ingest the plastic.
Nearshore ecosystems, such as lagoons and river estuaries, are important nurseries for a variety of commercially important fish species. In the seagrass beds of the lagoons, the fish find shelter and food and thus ideal conditions for growing up. At the same time, however, a large proportion of plastic pollution enters the sea via rivers and coasts—in the process, seagrass meadows or algae forests can act like nets in which the plastic particles get caught.
In a study on sea bream, marine biologist Carolin Müller from the ZMT, together with colleagues from the Centro de Ciências do Mar in Portugal, investigated which environmental factors determine whether the young stages of the fish ingest the plastic: “In particular, the larvae and young fish, which represent the bottleneck in the development of fish populations, are very sensitive to environmental stress. Also, juvenile sea bream are omnivorous, so they may be particularly vulnerable to plastic ingestion,” she explains.
Too little is still known about how plastic affects fish and their sensitive young, she adds.