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Micro- and Nanoplastics in Marine Sediment: Detecting and Assessing Impacts on Benthic Communities
Citation:
Giroux, M., R. Burgess, AND K. Ho. Micro- and Nanoplastics in Marine Sediment: Detecting and Assessing Impacts on Benthic Communities. University of California-Riverside Environmental Toxicology Graduate Student Seminar, NA, Virtual, December 09, 2020.
Impact/Purpose:
This presentation will help inform graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and faculty at the University of California-Riverside about the progress of plastic particle research at ACESD. This wide audience will also learn about new technologies and methodologies for detecting and assessing the affects of plastic particles on benthic systems.
Description:
Plastic particles are now found ubiquitously in the environment, and as the abundance of plastic increases in marine systems, the magnitude of adverse biological and ecological effects of plastics of various size classes (macro-, micro-, nano-) need to be evaluated for potential risks. Marine sediments act as a sink for many contaminants, including microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs), and are rich habitats for benthic meiofauna and other eukaryotic communities which form the base of the marine food webs. However, there are many technical challenges in measuring MPs and NPs in environmental samples. We will present our methods to extract, identify, and quantify MPs, as well as address the limitations that still exist in measuring plastic particles in environmental samples. NPs are of growing concern because they may be able to pass through biological membranes more effectively than larger microscale particles and enter marine systems primarily through fragmentation of larger plastics present in the environment. However, little is known about the effects of nanoplastics on individual species, community diversity, or ecosystem structure. Identifying benthic organisms is a time-consuming process, but molecular methods, such as metabarcoding, utilize high-throughput sequencing to assess community diversity and structure from environmental DNA/RNA and are quicker than conventional methods. In this presentation, we will discuss the utility of using eRNA and eDNA to understand the impacts of NPs on benthic micro- and meiofaunal communities. The best approaches for assessing the adverse effects MPs and NPs in benthic ecosystems can be determined once we understand the types and concentrations of plastic particles in sediment.