Low pH aggravates toxicity of polystyrene microplastics in crab Eriocheir sinensis

The concurrent intensification of global warming, population growth, economic development, and urbanization has led to rising plastic waste generation and worsening ocean acidification. Under these compounded environmental pressures, plastics undergo accelerated degradation through multiple mechanisms including seawater erosion, UV radiation, and microbial activity, generating vast quantities of microplastics (MPs) <5 mm in size. Simultaneously, rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentrations enhance seawater dissolution, driving persistent pH decline.

“The global surface seawater pH has already decreased by 0.1 units since pre-industrial times, representing a 30% increase in acidity,” shares Zhigang Yang, lead author of a new study published in Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology. “These dual stressors present unprecedented threats to aquatic ecosystems.”

Using Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir sinensis) as a model organism, the research team employed a 21-day exposure experiment integrating enzyme activity assays, gut microbiota profiling, and hepatopancreas metabolomics to investigate individual and combined effects of low pH and polystyrene MPs.

The key findings include: (1) Combined low pH (6.5) and MPs exposure synergistically exacerbated oxidative damage and immune suppression; (2) While MPs alone primarily disrupted pyrimidine metabolism, co-exposure significantly impaired the TCA cycle and arginine biosynthesis while activating serotonin metabolism; (3) Gut microbiota maintained α-diversity but showed substantial COG functional alterations.

“Our results demonstrate how freshwater acidification amplifies MPs toxicity in crustaceans through immune-metabolic crosstalk,” says Yang. “They provide novel mechanistic perspectives for ecological risk assessment of multiple environmental stressors under climate change scenarios.”

The researchers encourage future research to incorporate more environmentally relevant MPs such as rubber and fibers to further enhance ecological relevance.

###

Contact the author: aqchen@shou.edu.cn (Aqin Chen ^a,b*), youjiwang2@gmail.com (Youji Wang ^a,b,c,**).

^a Key Laboratory of Freshwater Aquatic Genetic Resources, Ministry of Agriculture, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China

^b Centre for Research on Environmental Ecology and Fish Nutrition (CREEFN) of the Ministry of Agriculture, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China

^c International Research Center for Marine Biosciences, Ministry of Science and Technology, Shanghai Ocean University, Shanghai 201306, China

The publisher KeAi was established by Elsevier and China Science Publishing & Media Ltd to unfold quality research globally. In 2013, our focus shifted to open access publishing. We now proudly publish more than 200 world-class, open access, English language journals, spanning all scientific disciplines. Many of these are titles we publish in partnership with prestigious societies and academic institutions, such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).