Bejarano, Sonia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6451-6354, Diemel, Valeska, Feuring, Anna, Ghilardi, Mattia ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9592-7252 and Harder, Tilmann (2022) No short-term effect of sinking microplastics on heterotrophy or sediment clearing in the tropical coral Stylophora pistillata. Scientific Reports, 12 (1). DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05420-7.

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Abstract

Investigations of encounters between corals and microplastics have, to date, used particle concentrations that are several orders of magnitude above environmentally relevant levels. Here we investigate whether concentrations closer to values reported in tropical coral reefs affect sediment shedding and heterotrophy in reef‑building corals. We show that single‑pulse microplastic deposition elicits significantly more coral polyp retraction than comparable amounts of calcareous sediments.
When deposited separately from sediments, microplastics remain longer on corals than sediments, through stronger adhesion and longer periods of examination by the coral polyps. Contamination of sediments with microplastics does not retard corals’ sediment clearing rates. Rather, sediments speed‑up microplastic shedding, possibly affecting its electrostatic behaviour. Heterotrophy rates are three times higher than microplastic ingestion rates when corals encounter microzooplankton
(Artemia salina cysts) and microplastics separately. Exposed to cysts‑microplastic combinations, corals feed preferentially on cysts regardless of microplastic concentration. Chronic‑exposure experiments should test whether our conclusions hold true under environmental conditions typical of inshore marginal coral reefs.

Document Type:	Article
Programme Area:	PA3
Research affiliation:	Ecology > Reef Systems
Refereed:	Yes
Open Access Journal?:	Yes
DOI:	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05420-7
ISSN:	2045-2322
Date Deposited:	01 Feb 2022 15:58
Last Modified:	18 Oct 2022 15:42
URI:	http://cris.leibniz-zmt.de/id/eprint/4849

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