RESUMO
Plastic pollution represents a threat to marine ecosystems and has therefore been gaining space in the realm of public interest. In this study, we investigated the ingestion of food and non-food items (i.e., plastic particles) by fish and crabs. These animals are commonly collected by trawling with a double-ring net along the coast of Cananéia, state of São Paulo, Brazil; some of them are consumed as food by the local population. Fish and crab stomachs were removed and dissected, and their contents were examined under a stereoscopic microscope with an image-capturing system. The presence or absence of plastic was also registered. We examined 139 specimens of 16 fish species and 143 specimens of four crab species. The most frequent food items found in fish were unidentified food, followed by crustaceans, molluscs, polychaetes, and other fish; in crabs, the items were unidentified food, followed by crustaceans, molluscs and fish. Plastic particles were found in all fish species, representing 47.5% of the individuals analysed. In crabs, the incidence of plastic was lower, occurring in only two species (5% in Callinectes danae and 3% in C. ornatus). Only four fish species analysed had previous records of plastic ingestion in the scientific literature. The high incidence of microplastics in our study is worrying because they negatively affect the animals' lives and can be transferred through the tropic web to top predators, including humans, through the ingestion of contaminated animals.(AU)
Assuntos
Plásticos/análise , Braquiúros/fisiologia , Absorção Gástrica/fisiologia , BrasilRESUMO
Genome size (GS) or DNA nuclear content is considered a useful index for making inferences about evolutionary models and life history in animals, including taxonomic, biogeographical, and ecological scenarios. However, patterns of GS variation and their causes in crustaceans are still poorly understood. This study aimed to describe the GS of five Neotropical Synalpheus non-gambarelloides shrimps (S. apioceros, S. minus, S. brevicarpus, S. fritzmueller, and S. scaphoceris) and compare the C-values of all Caridea infraorder in terms of geography and phylogenetics. All animals were sampled in the coast of São Paulo State, Brazil, and GS was assessed by flow cytometry analysis (FCA). The C-values ranged from 7.89 pg in S. apioceros to 12.24 pg in S. scaphoceris. Caridean shrimps had higher GS than other Decapoda crustaceans. The results reveal a tendency of obtaining larger genomes in species with direct development in Synalpheus shrimps. In addition, a tendency of positive biogeographical (latitudinal) correlation with Caridea infraorder was also observed. This study provides remarkable and new protocol for FCA (using gating strategy for the analysis), which led to the discovery of new information regarding GS of caridean shrimps, especially for Neotropical Synalpheus, which represents the second-largest group in the Caridea infraorder.