The microplastics (MPs) vector effect of environmental contaminants (such as polychlorinated biphenyls-PCBs) to organism tissues is currently one of the major concerns regarding MPs pollution in the marine environment. The relative importance of MPs as vectors for the bioaccumulation of contaminants to marine organisms compared to other naturally occurring particles has been poorly investigated and never by using biofilm-covered particles. The present study compares the role of biofilm-covered microplastics and sand particles as vectors for the transfer and bioaccumulation of ¹⁴C-PCB-153 into various body compartments of the sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus. After 14 days of exposure, similar transfer efficiency of ¹⁴C-PCB-153 from both types of biofilm-covered particles was obtained (t-test, p-val = 0.43). The particle type was not found to affect the concentration (two-way ANOVA, p-valper dry weight = 0.92, p-valper lipid weight = 0.80) and distribution (two-way ANOVA, p-val = 0.85) of ¹⁴C-PCB-153 among the different body compartments of sea urchins. These findings suggest that biofilm-covered MPs located on the seafloor may act as similar vectors for the bioaccumulation of PCB-153 in sea urchin tissues compared to other biofouled natural particles such as sand. Overall, the outcomes of this present work align with the growing consensus among various research groups that MPs-mediated bioaccumulation of co-contaminants would be negligible compared to natural bioaccumulation pathways in relation to their abundance in the ocean.

中文翻译：

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生物膜覆盖的微塑料和沙粒作为 PCB-153 与 Paracentrotus lividus 的载体的比较


环境污染物（如多氯联苯-多氯联苯）对生物体组织的微塑料 （MP） 媒介效应是目前海洋环境中 MPS 污染的主要问题之一。与其他天然存在的颗粒相比，MP 作为污染物在海洋生物中生物积累的载体的相对重要性研究不足，从未使用过生物膜覆盖的颗粒。本研究比较了生物膜覆盖的微塑料和沙粒作为 ¹⁴C-PCB-153 转移到海胆 Paracentrotus lividus 各个身体隔室的载体的作用。暴露 14 天后，从两种类型的生物膜覆盖颗粒中获得 ¹⁴C-PCB-153 的相似转移效率（t 检验，p-val = 0.43）。未发现颗粒类型影响 ¹⁴C-PCB-153 的浓度 （双向方差分析，p-valper 干重 = 0.92，p-valper 脂质重量 = 0.80） 和分布 （双向方差分析，p-val = 0.85） 海胆不同体室。这些发现表明，与其他生物污染的天然颗粒（如沙子）相比，位于海底的生物膜覆盖的 MP 可能是 PCB-153 在海胆组织中生物积累的类似载体。总体而言，这项工作的结果与各个研究小组之间日益增长的共识一致，即与自然生物积累途径相比，MP 介导的共污染物的生物积累可以忽略不计，因为它们在海洋中的丰度。