Abstract：
Microplastics (MPs) are ubiquitous pollutants in marine environments. Among the many detrimental consequences of microplastic pollution, its consumption by marine biota is of particular relevance for human health, due to exposure through the food web. Long-term time-series biotic samples are overlooked sources of information for microplastics research. These collections are extremely valuable for the detection and monitoring of changes in marine environments. However, there are very few long-term studies (>10 years) of the uptake of microplastics by biota. Here, we used Dove Time Series planktonic samples (from 1971 to 2020) to assess the presence and prevalence of microplastics in the English North Sea coast over time. Fish and brachyuran larvae were selected due to their commercial importance and consequent implications for human health. A custom enzymatic digestion method was used to extract microplastics for FTIR-ATR polymer identification. An increasing cumulative trend in MP ingestion was identified. Cellophane and polyethylene terephthalate were the polymer types found most frequently in both taxa. Although a total higher microplastics uptake was observed in fish, consumption was not significantly different between taxa over time. Equally, results were not clearly related to microplastics shape or polymer type. This work did not find significant long-term evidence on the increasing uptake of microplastic particles by zooplankton over time. However, the results of this report identified additives, plasticisers, and other more complex and hazardous compounds that should not be released to the environment (e.g., bis-(2-hydroxyethyl) dimerate, propylene glycol ricinoleate) inside marine biota. The study detailed herein provides a case study for the use of long-term time-series in providing accurate assessments of microplastic pollution in marine biota.
摘要：
微塑料(MPs)是海洋环境中普遍存在的污染物。在微塑料污染的许多有害后果中，它的海洋生物消耗与人类健康特别相关，由于通过食物网暴露。长期时间序列生物样本是微塑料研究的信息来源。这些集合对于检测和监测海洋环境的变化非常有价值。然而,关于生物群吸收微塑料的长期研究(>10年)很少。这里,我们使用Dove时间序列浮游样品（从1971年到2020年）来评估英国北海沿岸微塑料的存在和流行情况。之所以选择鱼类和短柄幼虫，是因为它们具有商业重要性并因此对人类健康产生了影响。使用定制的酶消化方法提取微塑料以进行FTIR-ATR聚合物鉴定。确定了MP摄取的增加的累积趋势。玻璃纸和聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯是两种类群中最常见的聚合物类型。尽管在鱼类中观察到了更高的微塑料摄入量，随着时间的推移，不同分类单元的消费量没有显著差异。同样,结果与微塑料形状或聚合物类型没有明显关系。这项工作没有发现长期证据表明浮游动物对塑料微粒的吸收随着时间的推移而增加。然而,这份报告的结果确定了添加剂，增塑剂，以及其他不应释放到环境中的更复杂和危险的化合物(例如，双-(2-羟乙基)二聚体,丙二醇蓖麻油酸酯）在海洋生物区系内。本文详述的研究提供了一个案例研究，用于使用长期时间序列来准确评估海洋生物群中的微塑料污染。
