Description: These datasets comprise data obtained during a 42 week-long exposure experiment of Mytilus spp. to two types of microplastics, namely spherical polystyrene (PS) particles and irregular polyvinylchloride (PVC) particles. This data was obtained from January 2018 to January 2019 from juvenile blue mussels with an initial size of 10mm. We recorded growth via shell length. Growth was measured every six weeks already during a three months acclimation period without exposure to microplastics. Mussels were exposed to three concentrations of PS (15, 1500, 15 000 particles/individual/week) and five concentrations of PVC (15, 1500, 15 000, 150 000 and 1 500 000 particles/individual/week) and one group to no particles at all as control.

Description: These datasets comprise data obtained during a 42 week-long exposure experiment of Mytilus spp. to two types of microplastics, namely spherical polystyrene (PS) particles and irregular polyvinylchloride (PVC) particles. This data was obtained from January 2018 to January 2019 from juvenile blue mussels with an initial size of 10mm. We recorded byssus thread production in 24 hours. Byssus thread production was measured every six weeks only during microplastic exposure. Mussels were exposed to three concentrations of PS (15, 1500, 15 000 particles/individual/week) and five concentrations of PVC (15, 1500, 15 000, 150 000 and 1 500 000 particles/individual/week) and one group to no particles at all as control.

Description: These datasets comprise data obtained during a 42 week-long exposure experiment of Mytilus spp. to two types of microplastics, namely spherical polystyrene (PS) particles and irregular polyvinylchloride (PVC) particles. This data was obtained from January 2018 to January 2019 from juvenile blue mussels with an initial size of 10mm. We recorded clearance rate of the food algae R. baltica. Clearance rate was measured every six weeks only during microplastic exposure. Mussels were exposed to three concentrations of PS (15, 1500, 15 000 particles/individual/week) and five concentrations of PVC (15, 1500, 15 000, 150 000 and 1 500 000 particles/individual/week) and one group to no particles at all as control.

Description: These datasets comprise data obtained during a 42 week-long exposure experiment of Mytilus spp. to two types of microplastics, namely spherical polystyrene (PS) particles and irregular polyvinylchloride (PVC) particles. This data was obtained from January 2018 to January 2019 from juvenile blue mussels with an initial size of 10mm. We recorded body condition index. Body condition was measured three times, at week 0, week 16 and week 32. At week 0 only one group of mussels not exposed to microplastic particles was measured, at the other two time points mussels were exposed to three concentrations of PS (15, 1500, 15 000 particles/individual/week) and five concentrations of PVC (15, 1500, 15 000, 150 000 and 1 500 000 particles/individual/week) and one group to no particles at all as control.

Description: These datasets comprise data obtained during a 42 week-long exposure experiment of Mytilus spp. to two types of microplastics, namely spherical polystyrene (PS) particles and irregular polyvinylchloride (PVC) particles. This data was obtained from January 2018 to January 2019 from juvenile blue mussels with an initial size of 10mm. Oxidative stress in the form of Malondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations was only measured once at the end of the experiment. Mussels were exposed to three concentrations of PS (15, 1500, 15 000 particles/individual/week) and five concentrations of PVC (15, 1500, 15 000, 150 000 and 1 500 000 particles/individual/week) and one group to no particles at all as control.

Description: These datasets comprise data obtained during a 42 week-long exposure experiment of Mytilus spp. to two types of microplastics, namely spherical polystyrene (PS) particles and irregular polyvinylchloride (PVC) particles. This data was obtained from January 2018 to January 2019 from juvenile blue mussels with an initial size of 10mm. Oxidative stress in the form of Superoxide (SOD) activity was only measured once at the end of the experiment. Mussels were exposed to three concentrations of PS (15, 1500, 15 000 particles/individual/week) and five concentrations of PVC (15, 1500, 15 000, 150 000 and 1 500 000 particles/individual/week) and one group to no particles at all as control.

Description: Microplastic research started at the turn of the millennium and is of growing interest, as microplastics have the potential to affect a whole range of organisms, from the base of the food web to top predators, including humans. To date, most studies are initial assessments of microplastic abundances for a certain area, thereby generally distinguishing three different sampling matrices: water, sediment and biota samples. Those descriptive studies are important to get a first impression of the extent of the problem, but for a proper risk assessment of ecosystems and their inhabitants, analytical studies of microplastic fluxes, sources, sinks, and transportation pathways are of utmost importance. Moreover, to gain insight into the effects microplastics might have on biota, it is crucial to identify realistic environmental concentrations of microplastics. Thus, profound knowledge about the effects of microplastics on biota is still scarce. Effects can vary regarding habitat, functional group of the organism, and polymer type for example, making it difficult to find quick answers to the many open questions. In addition, microplastic research is accompanied by many methodological challenges that need to be overcome first to assess the impact of microplastics on aquatic systems. Thereby, a development of standardized operational protocols (SOPs) is a pre-requisite for comparability among studies. Since SOPs are still lacking and new methods are developed or optimized very frequently, the aim of this chapter is to point out the most crucial challenges in microplastic research and to gather the most recent promising methods used to quantify environmental concentrations of microplastics and effect studies.

Description: In a warming climate it is important to know the upper thermal tolerance limits of organisms, especially in coastal regions where climate change is expected to lead to an increase in weather extremes such as heat waves. Physiological studies can help to predict the effects of global warming by determining if a species lives currently at their upper thermal tolerance limit. In this study, the intertidal sea anemone Haliplanella lineata from West Java, Indonesia, was examined for its upper thermal tolerance limit and its reactions to heat stress in the range close to the identified limit. The upper thermal tolerance limit, here defined as the maximum temperature at which more than 50 % of the test individuals survived the duration of the experiment of 42 days, was reached at 36° C. A surprisingly strong increase in mortality was observed when temperatures rose by just 1° C above 36° C. A gradual elimination with rising temperatures above 36° C was expected. This limit was observed in a set up in which single individuals were exposed to four different temperate regimes for 42 days. They exhibited an optimum performance at 34° C. Some response variables such as habitus, heat shock protein levels and asexual reproduction revealed a pattern of failing physiological functions at temperatures higher than 34° C. This sea anemone lives in the inte1iidal and is adapted to a wide range of daily fluctuating temperatures which result in a good performance at 34° C. The high mortality is in agreement with the limited acclimatory capacity, since they already live close to their upper thermal tolerance limit as an intertidal and tropical population. In the context of global warming, however, they are presumably not threatened since the expected increase in temperature and heat waves in Indonesia will not exceed the identified limit much and H line at a can survive temperatures above its limit for short amounts of time and recovers during exposure to colder temperature during high tide. This study was performed in the framework of the GAME programme hosted by GEOMAR, the Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research in Kiel, in collaboration with the Institut Pertanian Bogar in Bogor, Indonesia.

Description: The coastal and open oceans represent a major, but yet unconstrained, sink for plastics. It is likely that plastic-biota interactions are a key driver for the fragmentation, aggregation, and vertical transport of plastic litter from surface waters to sedimentary sinks. Cruise SO279 conducted sampling to address core questions of microplastic distribution in the open ocean water column, biota, and sediments. Seven stations were sampled between the outer Bay of Biscay and the primary working area south of the Azores. Additional samples were collected from surface waters along the cruise track to link European coastal and shelf waters with the open ocean gyre. Microplastic samples coupled with geochemical tracer analyses will build a mechanistic understanding of MP transport and its biological impact reaching from coastal seas to the central gyre water column and sinks at the seabed. Furthermore, floating plastics were sampled for microbial community and genetic analyses to investigate potential enzymatic degradation pathways. Cruise SO279 served as the third cruise of a number of connected research cruises to build an understanding of the transport pathways of plastic and microplastic debris in the North Atlantic from the input through rivers and air across coastal seas into the accumulation spots in the North Atlantic gyre and the vertical export to its sink at the seabed. The cruise was an international effort as part of the JPI Oceans project HOTMIC (“HOrizontal and vertical oceanic distribution, Transport, and impact of MICroplastics”) and the BMBF funded project PLASTISEA (‘Harvesting the marine Plastisphere for novel cleaning concepts’), and formed a joint effort of HOTMIC and PLASTISEA researchers from a range of countries and institutes.

Description: The blue mussel (Mytilus species complex) is an important ecosystem engineer, and salinity can be a major abiotic driver of mussel functioning in coastal ecosystems. However, little is known about the interactive effects of abiotic drivers and trematode infection. This study investigated the combined effects of salinity and Himasthla elongata and Renicola roscovita metacercarial infections on the filtration capacity, growth, and condition of M. edulis from the Baltic Sea. In a laboratory experiment, groups of infected and uninfected mussels were exposed to a wide range of salinities (6−30, in steps of 3) for 1 mo. Shell growth was found to be positively correlated with salinity and optimal at 18−24 at the end of the experiment, imposed by constraints in shell calcification under lower salinities. Mussel shell growth was not affected by H. elongata infection. While salinity had only a minor effect on tissue dry weight, infected mussels had a significantly lower tissue dry weight than uninfected mussels. Most interestingly, the combination of salinity and trematode infections negatively affected the mussels’ condition indices at lower salinity levels (6 and 9), suggesting that trematode infections are more detrimental to mussels when combined with freshening. A significant positive effect of salinity on mussel filtration was found, with an initial optimum at salinity 18 shifting to 18−24 by the end of the experiment. These findings indicate that salinity and parasite infections act as synergistic stressors for mussels, and enhance the understanding of potential future ecosystem shifts under climate change-induced freshening in coastal waters.