The Effect of Mixed Microplastics on Freshwater Microalgae Growth
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32473/ufjur.27.138732Keywords:
microalgae, microplastic, ecotoxicology, primary production, freshwater ecologyAbstract
Microplastics from plastic waste degradation can pose a threat to microalgae in freshwater ecosystems. However, past studies have mainly focused on the effect of a single microplastic polymer on microalgae. Therefore, this research assessed the effect of mixed microplastics (PP and PVC) on freshwater microalgae growth. The collected microalgae community sample was distributed into triplicates of one control flask (no microplastics) and five flasks with different levels of microplastics: 0% PP + 100% PVC, 25% PP + 75% PVC, 50% PP + 50% PVC, 75% PP + 25% PVC, and 100% PP + 0% PVC. After the microalgae were allowed to grow undisturbed in a lab environment for nine days, absorbance as a metric of chlorophyll a was measured for each flask. The absorbance was greater in the PP microplastic dominant environment (mean chlorophyll a absorbance: 0.2032) than in the PVC microplastic dominant environment (mean chlorophyll a absorbance: 0.1182; p-value: 0.0426). This result suggests that the type of microplastic is a significant factor on microalgae growth. Moreover, the results of this research indicate that microplastics can facilitate the growth of microalgae despite their known toxicity to algal populations. This positive effect of microplastics can potentially be used in algal biomass production, which is a valuable renewable resource.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Xiaozheng Liu, Masanori Fujimoto
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