摘要

塑料污染对全世界的海洋生态系统构成了普遍和日益严重的威胁，因此需要更好地了解微生物（<5 mm）被高营养级分类群（如海洋哺乳动物）摄入的程度。在这里，我们通过检查来自10个物种的50个人的整个消化道进行全面评估，同时操作严格的污染控制。微塑料普遍存在，在每个检查的动物中检测到颗粒。每只动物的数量相对较低（平均值= 5.5）表明这些颗粒是短暂的。然而，发现胃含有比肠更多的数量，表明可能暂时保留。大多数颗粒是纤维（84％），而剩余的16％是碎片。颗粒主要是蓝色和黑色（42.5％和26.4％），尼龙是最普遍（60％）的聚合物类型。在死亡原因类别和微弹性丰度之间发现了一种可能的关系，表明由于传染病而死亡的动物的颗粒数量略高于死于创伤和其他致死因素的动物。然而，不可能对这一观察的潜在生物学意义作出任何确切的结论，需要进一步研究以更好地了解微弹性暴露对动物健康的潜在慢性影响，特别是因为海洋哺乳动物被广泛认为是重要的哨兵。污染对海洋环境的影响。

Plastic pollution represents a pervasive and increasing threat to marine ecosystems worldwide and there is a need to better understand the extent to which microplastics (<5 mm) are ingested by high trophic-level taxa, such as marine mammals. Here, we perform a comprehensive assessment by examining whole digestive tracts of 50 individuals from 10 species whilst operating strict contamination controls. Microplastics were ubiquitous with particles detected in every animal examined. The relatively low number per animal (mean = 5.5) suggests these particles are transitory. Stomachs, however, were found to contain a greater number than intestines, indicating a potential site of temporary retention. The majority of particles were fibres (84%) while the remaining 16% was fragments. Particles were mainly blue and black (42.5% and 26.4%) in colour and Nylon was the most prevalent (60%) polymer type. A possible relationship was found between the cause of death category and microplastic abundance, indicating that animals that died due to infectious diseases had a slightly higher number of particles than those that died of trauma and other drivers of mortality. It is not possible, however, to draw any firm conclusions on the potential biological significance of this observation and further research is required to better understand the potential chronic effects of microplastic exposure on animal health, particularly as marine mammals are widely considered important sentinels for the implications of pollution for the marine environment.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30705316