title: Toxic effects of microplastic on marine microalgae Skeletonema costatum: Interactions between microplastic and algae.
abstract: To investigate toxic effects of microplastic on marine microalgae Skeletonema costatum, both algal growth inhibition test and non-contact shading test were carried out, and algal photosynthesis parameters were also determined. The SEM images were used to observe interactions between microplastic and algae. It was found that microplastic (mPVC, average diameter 1 μm) had obvious inhibition on growth of microalgae and the maximum growth inhibition ratio (IR) reached up to 39.7% after 96 h exposure. However, plastic debris (bPVC, average diameter 1 mm) had no effects on growth of microalgae. High concentration (50 mg/L) mPVC also had negative effects on algal photosynthesis since both chlorophyll content and photosynthetic efficiency (ΦPSⅡ) decreased under mPVC treatments. Shading effect was not one reason for toxicity of microplastic on algae in this study. Compared with non-contact shading effect, interactions between microplastic and microalage such as adsorption and aggregation were more reasonable explanations for toxic effects of microplastic on marine microalgae. The SEM images provided a more direct and reasonable method to observe the behaviors of microplastic.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Marine Chemistry Theory and Technology, Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China.
authors.forename: Cai
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Marine Chemistry Theory and Technology, Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China.
authors.forename: Xiaohua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Marine Chemistry Theory and Technology, Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China. Electronic address: jtwang@ouc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jiangtao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Marine Chemistry Theory and Technology, Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China.
authors.forename: Liju
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tan
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D002734:Chlorophyll / Q000378:metabolism; D017377:Diatoms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D058086:Microalgae / Q000187:drug effects*; D010788:Photosynthesis / Q000187:drug effects; D011143:Polyvinyl Chloride / Q000737:chemistry / Q000633:toxicity*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000737:chemistry / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D002734:Chlorophyll; D011143:Polyvinyl Chloride
keywords: Algal inhibition test; Microalgae; Microplastic; Particle size; Shading test