Toxicokinetics and transport of microplastics in freshwater aquatic macroinvertebrates

• Grant number: 24/16591-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2024
• End date: October 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Applied Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Evaldo Luiz Gaeta Espindola
• Grantee: Sophia Porsch Henck de Almeida
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 22/12104-4 - Fate and impacts of microplastics and pesticides in aquatic and terrestrial matrices in agricultural contexts, AP.TEM

Abstract

When they enter the environment, plastic particles undergo several degradation processes, which alter their properties and transform them into microplastics. In addition, microplastics that reach the environment directly also experience different levels of degradation. Therefore, with the growing concern about water pollution, studies of which are particularly focused on the marine environment, and the expansion of plastic production, new research opportunities arise. Therefore, this proposal aims to verify the ingestion, excretion and retention of microplastics (toxicokinetics) in the freshwater gastropod species Physa acuta, as well as the fixation of these microplastics in the different phases of metamorphism of the insect Chironomus sancticaroli and their transport from aquatic to terrestrial environments through the emergence of adults. For this purpose, exposure tests with P. acuta individuals will be carried out at different concentrations of microplastics, exposure times (24 and 48h) and nutritional condition. This will allow us to assess whether the presence or absence of food, as well as different exposure times, affect the species' plastic ingestion. Tests with C. sancticaroli will also be conducted to assess plastic ingestion in the larval stage and to verify whether these particles are retained and maintained in the pupal and adult stages. In this sense, the results obtained will contribute to advancing discussions about microplastic pollution and the fixation and transport of these particles between environmental compartments and food webs, considering freshwater species in tropical conditions.