Toxicity of microplastics and nanoplastics to benthic Sargassum horneri: The role of nitrogen availability in modulating stress responses

IF 4.1 2区环境科学与生态学 Q1 MARINE & FRESHWATER BIOLOGY

Aquatic Toxicology Pub Date : 2025-04-14 DOI:10.1016/j.aquatox.2025.107366

Menglin Bao , Fei Sheng , Qi Zhang , Jichen Liu , Rongyu Xin , Fang Yan , Shasha Zang , Zhiguang Xu , Hongyan Wu

{"title":"Toxicity of microplastics and nanoplastics to benthic Sargassum horneri: The role of nitrogen availability in modulating stress responses","authors":"Menglin Bao , Fei Sheng , Qi Zhang , Jichen Liu , Rongyu Xin , Fang Yan , Shasha Zang , Zhiguang Xu , Hongyan Wu","doi":"10.1016/j.aquatox.2025.107366","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Over the past few decades, the accumulation of micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) have identified as enduring contaminants, posing significant risks to aquatic organisms. However, the interplay of MNPs and environmental stressors (e.g. nutrient etc.) is not well understood. In this study, <em>Sargassum horneri</em>, a typical benthic macroalgae, was cultured with two sizes of plastic particles (MPs (5 μm), NPs (0.05 μm) and nitrogen concentrations (LN (30 μM), HN (120 μM)) for 20 days to investigate the interactive effects between MNPs and nitrogen levels by measuring different physiological and biochemical parameters. The results demonstrated that both MPs and NPs decrease growth rate, non-photochemical quenching (NPQ), and catalase (CAT) activity, but increased the chlorophyll <em>a</em> and <em>c</em>, carotenoid, and soluble protein contents at low nitrogen level. Notably, the inhibitory effect on growth rate was more pronounced in the NPs conditions. Compared to low nitrogen groups, high nitrogen concentration increased the growth rate, NPQ, the ratio of carotenoids to chlorophyll <em>a</em>, the energy absorbed by each reaction center (ABS/RC), the energy dissipated by each reaction center (DI<sub>0</sub>/RC), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and CAT levels at same MPs or NPs treatment, respectively. Meanwhile, there was no significant difference among different sizes of plastic particle treatment groups in high nitrogen conditions. These results imply that NPs may exhibit potentially greater detrimental effects than MPs<strong>,</strong> when the algae were cultured under low nitrogen conditions. However, increased nitrogen availability appears to alleviate the toxic effects of MNPs by enhancing the algal photoprotective and antioxidant capacities. These findings highlight the potential for nutrient enrichment to mitigate the toxic impacts of micro- and nanoplastics on benthic macroalgae, providing valuable insights into future ecosystem response to increasing MNPs pollution in nutrient-variable coastal environments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":248,"journal":{"name":"Aquatic Toxicology","volume":"283 ","pages":"Article 107366"},"PeriodicalIF":4.1000,"publicationDate":"2025-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Aquatic Toxicology","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166445X25001316","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"MARINE & FRESHWATER BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Over the past few decades, the accumulation of micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs) have identified as enduring contaminants, posing significant risks to aquatic organisms. However, the interplay of MNPs and environmental stressors (e.g. nutrient etc.) is not well understood. In this study, Sargassum horneri, a typical benthic macroalgae, was cultured with two sizes of plastic particles (MPs (5 μm), NPs (0.05 μm) and nitrogen concentrations (LN (30 μM), HN (120 μM)) for 20 days to investigate the interactive effects between MNPs and nitrogen levels by measuring different physiological and biochemical parameters. The results demonstrated that both MPs and NPs decrease growth rate, non-photochemical quenching (NPQ), and catalase (CAT) activity, but increased the chlorophyll a and c, carotenoid, and soluble protein contents at low nitrogen level. Notably, the inhibitory effect on growth rate was more pronounced in the NPs conditions. Compared to low nitrogen groups, high nitrogen concentration increased the growth rate, NPQ, the ratio of carotenoids to chlorophyll a, the energy absorbed by each reaction center (ABS/RC), the energy dissipated by each reaction center (DI₀/RC), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and CAT levels at same MPs or NPs treatment, respectively. Meanwhile, there was no significant difference among different sizes of plastic particle treatment groups in high nitrogen conditions. These results imply that NPs may exhibit potentially greater detrimental effects than MPs, when the algae were cultured under low nitrogen conditions. However, increased nitrogen availability appears to alleviate the toxic effects of MNPs by enhancing the algal photoprotective and antioxidant capacities. These findings highlight the potential for nutrient enrichment to mitigate the toxic impacts of micro- and nanoplastics on benthic macroalgae, providing valuable insights into future ecosystem response to increasing MNPs pollution in nutrient-variable coastal environments.

查看原文本刊更多论文

微塑料和纳米塑料对底栖马尾藻的毒性：氮供应在调节应激反应中的作用

在过去的几十年里，微塑料和纳米塑料（MNPs）的积累已被确定为持久性污染物，对水生生物构成重大风险。然而，MNPs与环境压力源（如营养物质等）的相互作用尚不清楚。本研究以典型底栖大型藻类马尾藻（Sargassum horneri）为研究对象，采用两种大小的塑料颗粒(MPs （5 μm）、NPs （0.05 μm）和氮浓度（LN （30 μm）、HN (120 μm)）培养20 d，通过测量不同的生理生化参数，研究MNPs与氮水平的交互作用。结果表明，低氮水平下，MPs和NPs均降低了油菜的生长速率、非光化学猝灭（NPQ）和过氧化氢酶（CAT）活性，提高了叶绿素a和c、类胡萝卜素和可溶性蛋白含量。值得注意的是，在NPs条件下，对生长速率的抑制作用更为明显。与低氮组相比，高氮处理分别提高了生长速率、NPQ、类胡萝卜素/叶绿素a比值、各反应中心吸收能量（ABS/RC）、各反应中心耗散能量（DI0/RC）、超氧化物歧化酶（SOD）和CAT水平。高氮条件下，不同粒径塑料颗粒处理组间无显著差异。这些结果表明，当藻类在低氮条件下培养时，NPs可能表现出比MPs更大的潜在有害影响。然而，氮有效性的增加似乎通过增强藻类的光保护和抗氧化能力来减轻MNPs的毒性作用。这些发现强调了营养富集的潜力，以减轻微塑料和纳米塑料对底栖大型藻类的毒性影响，为未来生态系统对营养可变沿海环境中MNPs污染增加的响应提供了有价值的见解。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Aquatic Toxicology 环境科学-毒理学

CiteScore

7.10

自引率

4.40%

发文量

250

审稿时长

56 days

期刊介绍： Aquatic Toxicology publishes significant contributions that increase the understanding of the impact of harmful substances (including natural and synthetic chemicals) on aquatic organisms and ecosystems. Aquatic Toxicology considers both laboratory and field studies with a focus on marine/ freshwater environments. We strive to attract high quality original scientific papers, critical reviews and expert opinion papers in the following areas: Effects of harmful substances on molecular, cellular, sub-organismal, organismal, population, community, and ecosystem level; Toxic Mechanisms; Genetic disturbances, transgenerational effects, behavioral and adaptive responses; Impacts of harmful substances on structure, function of and services provided by aquatic ecosystems; Mixture toxicity assessment; Statistical approaches to predict exposure to and hazards of contaminants The journal also considers manuscripts in other areas, such as the development of innovative concepts, approaches, and methodologies, which promote the wider application of toxicological datasets to the protection of aquatic environments and inform ecological risk assessments and decision making by relevant authorities.