Abstract
Microplastics have been declared a threat to ocean health and status under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 Target 14.1. Microplastics are bioavailable for a wide range of marine organisms and may cause adverse physiological and biochemical effects, including decreased growth and energy intake, and impaired reproduction. Accumulation of microplastics in benthic (seafloor) fauna is of particular concern in commercially important species, as this poses threats to human health. A baseline assessment of microplastic ingestion by Arctic benthic fauna is of urgent necessity.
In this chapter, we present initial results on microplastics ingestion by nine species of benthic fauna from the Pechora Sea, south-eastern Barents Sea, including the snow crab Chionoecetes opilio, a commercially-exploited and invasive benthic crustacean. From a sample set of 154 specimens, we compare microplastics ingestion by snow crabs with that of the eight other species to assess the impact of different feeding strategies on ingestion rates. Microplastic fibres were recorded in 35% of snow crab stomachs and 21% of stomachs of all species studied. Benthic omnivores (organisms with flexible feeding strategies) are shown to have more ingested microplastics (29%) than sessile filter-feeding organisms (17%).
A comprehensive and well-integrated monitoring program is needed in the Arctic for monitoring of microplastic pollution in both benthic and pelagic ecosystems, with consideration of regionally-specific features, such as seasonality of the ice cover, primary production, and riverine discharge. We believe that the Regional Action Plan on Marine litter in the Arctic currently under development by the Arctic Council’s Protection of the Arctic Marine Environment (PAME) Working Group will constitute an internationally-recognised framework for investigation and mitigation of plastic pollution in the Arctic. More broadly, adding ingestion rates of microplastics by benthic fauna to the SDG indicator 14.1.1 as a globally-important indicator of the impacts of plastic pollution would greatly advance development of a more comprehensive understanding of ecosystem status and mitigation measures to reduce plastic pollution globally.
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Acknowledgements
Authors express gratitude to the organising committee of the Arctic Frontiers conference for the opportunity to contribute to the edition. Authors are also grateful to the Lomonosov Moscow State University Marine Research Centre for organising the RV Kartesh cruises to the Pechora Sea and to the Captain and crew of RV Kartesh for their excellent work. Advice on methods of microplastic analyses by the Changing Oceans Research Group at the University of Edinburgh is gratefully acknowledged, in particular Dr. Seb Hennige and Laura La Beur. Authors are also grateful to Dr. Andrey Gebruk for helpful feedback on the first drafts and to Professor Paul Arthur Berkman for reviewing the paper.
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Appendix: Photographs of Microfibers from Stomach Contents of Specimens of Macrobenthos (Examples)
Appendix: Photographs of Microfibers from Stomach Contents of Specimens of Macrobenthos (Examples)
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Gebruk, A. et al. (2022). (Research): Microplastics in the Arctic Benthic Fauna: A Case Study of the Snow Crab in the Pechora Sea, Russia. In: Berkman, P.A., Vylegzhanin, A.N., Young, O.R., Balton, D.A., Øvretveit, O.R. (eds) Building Common Interests in the Arctic Ocean with Global Inclusion. Informed Decisionmaking for Sustainability. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89312-5_6
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