Diseño de estudio del movimiento de microplásticos en la cadena trófica

Abstract

Microplastics biomagnification have been extensively studied in marine ecosystems. However, studies in freshwater ecosystems are less frequent. Many invertebrates, such as Diptera and Odonata, begin their life cycle in these ecosystems and are constantly exposed to microplastics and are constantly exposed to microplastics which facilitates MP transport to organisms at other trophic levels. This study proposes a protocol to evaluate insects as vectors of microplastics using fluorescent particles to determine the risk of biomagnification and possible adverse effects on aquatic organisms. This project collected information on the effects of microplastics of different sizes at various concentrations and exposure times on dipterans, odonates, anurans, and arachnids. To determine the accumulation of microplastics in the internal organs, dissection, extraction and chemical digestion were chosen. While visualization of fluorescent particles was performed with epifluorescence microscopy to quantify the number of particles per individual. The results showed that the most prevalent particles were the smallest and the organ with the highest accumulation was the gastrointestinal tract. Likewise, the biomagnification factor was greater than 1 in all interactions except for anurans. This study demonstrates that the use of fluorescent particles plus chemical digestion allows determining the transfer of microplastics from mosquitoes to other organisms and that the smallest particles have a greater impact on the biomagnification of these particles in the internal organs of aquatic organisms