PMID- 30971712
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20201006
LR  - 20210109
IS  - 2045-2322 (Electronic)
IS  - 2045-2322 (Linking)
VI  - 9
IP  - 1
DP  - 2019 Apr 10
TI  - Plastic waste interferes with chemical communication in aquatic ecosystems.
PG  - 5889
LID - 10.1038/s41598-019-41677-1 [doi]
LID - 5889
AB  - Environmental pollution with plastic waste has gained increasing attention, as 
      the contamination of aquatic habitats poses a challenge to these ecosystems. 
      Plastic waste has direct negative effects on animals such as reduced growth rate, 
      fecundity or life span. However, the indirect effects of plastic waste, which has 
      the ability to sorb chemicals from the surrounding media, on chemical 
      communication have yet to be investigated. Chemical communication is crucial for 
      aquatic organisms, e.g., to avoid predation. The planktonic water flea Daphnia 
      (Crustacea), an important link between trophic levels, relies on info-chemicals 
      (kairomones) to assess its current predation risk and to form inducible defences. 
      We show that plastic waste, composed of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and 
      polyethylene terephthalate (PET) interferes with the formation of inducible 
      defences in Daphnia longicephala when exposed to a combination of kairomones of 
      Notonecta glauca and plastic waste. D. longicephala shows a reduction in all 
      defensive traits, including body length, crest width and time until primiparity, 
      compared to exposure to solely kairomone conditioned media. Plastic waste in the 
      absence of kairomones had no effect on defensive traits. Since it is vital to 
      adjust these defences to the current predation risk, any misperception can have 
      far-reaching ecological consequences. Therefore, plastic waste can have indirect 
      effects on organisms, which may manifest at the community level.
FAU - Trotter, B
AU  - Trotter B
AD  - Department of Animal Ecology I and BayCEER, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, 
      Germany.
FAU - Ramsperger, A F R M
AU  - Ramsperger AFRM
AD  - Department of Animal Ecology I and BayCEER, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, 
      Germany.
FAU - Raab, P
AU  - Raab P
AD  - Department of Animal Ecology I and BayCEER, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, 
      Germany.
FAU - Haberstroh, J
AU  - Haberstroh J
AD  - Department of Animal Ecology I and BayCEER, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, 
      Germany.
FAU - Laforsch, C
AU  - Laforsch C
AD  - Department of Animal Ecology I and BayCEER, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, 
      Germany. christian.laforsch@uni-bayreuth.de.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20190410
PL  - England
TA  - Sci Rep
JT  - Scientific reports
JID - 101563288
RN  - 0 (Pheromones)
RN  - 0 (Plastics)
RN  - 0 (Water Pollutants, Chemical)
RN  - 9002-88-4 (Polyethylene)
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - Body Size/drug effects
MH  - Daphnia/*drug effects/physiology
MH  - *Ecosystem
MH  - Hemiptera/metabolism
MH  - Pheromones/chemistry/pharmacology
MH  - Plastics/chemistry/*toxicity
MH  - Polyethylene/chemistry/toxicity
MH  - Predatory Behavior/drug effects
MH  - Water Pollutants, Chemical/toxicity
PMC - PMC6458178
COIS- The authors declare no competing interests.
EDAT- 2019/04/12 06:00
MHDA- 2020/10/07 06:00
PMCR- 2019/04/10
CRDT- 2019/04/12 06:00
PHST- 2018/09/27 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2019/01/31 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2019/04/12 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2019/04/12 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2020/10/07 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2019/04/10 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 10.1038/s41598-019-41677-1 [pii]
AID - 41677 [pii]
AID - 10.1038/s41598-019-41677-1 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - Sci Rep. 2019 Apr 10;9(1):5889. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-41677-1.