at Google ScholarTitle data
Trotter, Benjamin ; Ramsperger, Anja ; Raab, Patricia ; Haberstroh, Julia ; Laforsch, Christian:
Plastic waste interferes with chemical communication in aquatic ecosystems.
In: Scientific Reports.
Vol. 9
(2019)
.
- 5889.
ISSN 2045-2322
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-41677-1
Project information
| Project title: |
Project's official title Project's id Sonderforschungsbereich 1357 Mikroplastik
Verständnis der Mechanismen und Prozesse der biologischen Effekte, des Transports und der Bildung: Von Modell- zu komplexen Systemen als Grundlage neuer Lösungsansätze DFG – Projektnummer 391977956 – SFB 1357 Effects of microplastics on the model organism Daphnia DBU AZ 20015/387 Open Access Publizieren No information |
|---|---|
| Project financing: |
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Andere Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt |
Abstract in another language
nvironmental pollution with plastic waste has gained increasing attention, as the contamination of aquatic habitats poses a challenge to these ecosystems. Plastic waste has direct negative effects on animals such as reduced growth rate, fecundity or life span. However, the indirect effects of plastic waste, which has the ability to sorb chemicals from the surrounding media, on chemical communication have yet to be investigated. Chemical communication is crucial for aquatic organisms, e.g., to avoid predation. The planktonic water flea Daphnia (Crustacea), an important link between trophic levels, relies on info-chemicals (kairomones) to assess its current predation risk and to form inducible defences. We show that plastic waste, composed of high-density polyethylene (HDpe) and polyethylene terephthalate (pet) interferes with the formation of inducible defences in Daphnia longicephala when exposed to a combination of kairomones of Notonecta glauca and plastic waste. D. longicephala shows a reduction in all defensive traits, including body length, crest width and time until primiparity, compared to exposure to solely kairomone conditioned media. plastic waste in the absence of kairomones had no effect on defensive traits. Since it is vital to adjust these defences to the current predation risk, any misperception can have far-reaching ecological consequences. therefore, plastic waste can have indirect effects on organisms, which may manifest at the community level.