- Title
- Chronic and Transgenerational Effects of Polystyrene Microplastics at Environmentally Relevant Concentrations in Earthworms (Eisenia fetida)
- Creator
- Sobhani, Zahra; Panneerselvan, Logeshwaran; Fang, Cheng; Naidu, Ravi; Megharaj, Mallavarapu
- Relation
- Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Vol. 40, Issue 8, p. 2240-2246
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/etc.5072
- Publisher
- John Wiley & Sons
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2021
- Description
- Recently, soil contamination with microplastics has emerged as a serious global environmental concern that has necessitated more research on their potential impacts on soil biota. We investigated the acute and chronic toxicity of 2 different polystyrene microplastics, pure versus commercial (0–0.5% w/w in soil; sized 65–125 µm) on earthworm mortality, reproduction, and genotoxicity. Whereas the microplastics showed no acute toxicity in terms of mortality, reproduction was adversely affected in both parents (F0) and first filial generation (F1) of earthworms, with >50% reduction in juvenile production at 0.5% microplastics concentration in soil. Also, significant genotoxicity in terms of DNA damage was observed in the F0 and F1 earthworms. Chemical analysis of microplastic-exposed soils showed the presence of several benzene derivatives that are associated with polystyrene particles. Our study, for the first time to our knowledge, demonstrated the long-term adverse effects on earthworms of polystyrene microplastics even at environmentally relevant concentrations. The results have significant implications for risk assessment of polystyrene microplastics to soil biota.
- Subject
- polystyrene; microplastics; earthworm; chronic effect; transgenerational effect; SDG 3; Sustainable Development Goals
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1464198
- Identifier
- uon:46934
- Identifier
- ISSN:0730-7268
- Rights
- This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Sobhani, Zahra; Panneerselvan, Logeshwaran; Fang, Cheng; Naidu, Ravi; Megharaj, Mallavarapu. “Chronic and Transgenerational Effects of Polystyrene Microplastics at Environmentally Relevant Concentrations in Earthworms (Eisenia fetida)”. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Vol. 40, Issue 8, p. 2240-2246 (2021), which has been published in final form at http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/etc.5072. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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