Field: Environmental Science › PollutionType: No effect foundArea: marine pollutionTarget: Polystyrene micro- and nanoplastics fed to Pacific oyster larvaeStage: full study
Hypothesis
Ingesting microplastics would impair the feeding and growth of Pacific oyster larvae.
What failed
Larvae readily ingested polystyrene particles from 70 nm to 20 μm, but exposure to 1 and 10 μm particles for up to 8 days had no significant effect on feeding or growth at under 100 microplastics per mL — concentrations above those observed in the sea.
Broken assumption
Ingesting microplastics at environmentally relevant or higher concentrations harms oyster larval feeding and growth in the short term.
Why
The paper reports no measurable effect on development or feeding over the study's duration; it does not propose a mechanism.
From the published paper: Cole et al. Environmental Science & Technology, 2015. ↗CC BY