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Sponges as bioindicators for microparticulate pollutants

Elsa Girard 1, Adrian Fuchs 2, Melanie Kaliwoda 3, Markus Lasut 4, Evelyn Ploetz 2, Wolfgang W. Schmahl 1,5, Gert Wörheide 1,5,6

1 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 80333 Munich, Germany 2 Department of Chemistry and Center for Nanoscience (CeNS), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 81377 Munich, Germany 3 Mineralogische Staatssammlung München (SNSB), 80333 München, Germany 4 Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Science, Sam Ratulangi University, Jalan Kampus Unsrat Bahu, Manado 95115, Sulawesi Utara, Indonesia 5 GeoBio-CenterLMU, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 80333 Munich, Germany 6 SNSB - Bayerische Staatssammlung für Paläontologie und Geologie, 80333 Munich, Germany

Amongst other threats, the world’s oceans are faced with man-made pollution, including an increasing number of microparticulate pollutants. Sponges, aquatic filter-feeding animals, are able to incorporate fine foreign particles, and thus may be a potential bioindicator for microparticulate pollutants. To address this question, 15 coral reef demosponges sampled around Bangka Island (North Sulawesi, Indonesia) were analyzed for the nature of their foreign particle content using traditional histological methods, advanced light microscopy, and Raman spectroscopy. Sampled sponges accumulated and embedded the very fine sediment fraction (< 200 µm), absent in the surrounding sand, in the ectosome (outer epithelia) and spongin fibers (skeletal elements), which was confirmed by two-photon microscopy. A total of 34 different particle types were identified, of which degraded man-made products, i.e., polystyrene, cotton, titanium dioxide and blue-pigmented particles, were incorporated by eight specimens at concentrations between 91 to 612 particle/g dry sponge tissue. As sponges can weigh several hundreds of grams, we conservatively extrapolate that sponges can incorporate on average 10,000 microparticulate pollutants in their tissue. The uptake of particles, however, appears independent of the material, which suggests that the fluctuation in material ratios is due to the spatial variation of surrounding microparticles. Therefore, sponges have a strong potential to biomonitor microparticulate pollutants, such as microplastics and other degraded industrial products.

Keywords: Sponge, Marine Pollution, Bioindicator, Microplastic

In this repository, primary data (tables and Raman spectra) and associated R codes of the paper are available.

1. Download the folder "R-analysis" and the scripts in the "Downloads" folder of your computer
2. Open the R codes in RStudio
3. Choose which section of the code you are interested in
4. Run the section and you will obtain the basic graph associated to the data

** Final graphs were edited in Adobe Illustrator CS3, therefore they do not appear similar, but the information presented is the same.