The ingestion of microplastics by freshwater invertebrates has not been reported outside the laboratory. Microplastics can be ingested by organisms leading to negative physiological impacts. Microplastic ingestion by Tubifex worms poses a significant risk for trophic transfer and biomagnification of microplastics up the aquatic food chain.Ībstract = "Microplastic contamination of the aquatic environment is a global issue. We also show that Tubifex worms retain microplastics longer than other components of the ingested sediment matrix. The mean concentration of ingested microplastics was 129 ± 65.4 particles g-1 tissue. Whilst microbeads were present in the host sediment matrix, they were not detected in Tubifex worm tissue. FT-IR analysis revealed ingestion of a range of polymer types, including polyethylene terephthalate (polyester) and acrylic fibres.
87% of the Tubifex-ingested microplastic particles were microfibres (55 - 4100 µm in length), whilst the remaining 13% were microplastic fragments (50 - 4500 µm in length). The host sediments had microplastic concentrations ranging from 56 to 2543 particles kg-1. Here we demonstrate the ingestion of microplastic particles by Tubifex tubifex from bottom sediments in a major urban waterbody fed by the River Irwell, Manchester, UK. Microplastic contamination of the aquatic environment is a global issue.
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