ArticleScientific reports2018
Macro- and microplastics affect cold-water corals growth, feeding and behaviour.
Article in Scientific reports, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 36 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
36 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Occurrence, transport, and toxicity of microplastics in tropical food chains: perspectives view and way forward.Environmental geochemistry and health · 2024Pooled it
- Quality Criteria for Microplastic Effect Studies in the Context of Risk Assessment: A Critical Review.Environmental science & technology · 2020Pooled it
- Bioaccumulation and biomagnification of microplastics in marine organisms: A review and meta-analysis of current data.PloS one · 2020Pooled it
- Exploring the link between fatty acids, FADS2 expression, and ADHD using structural equation modeling.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Article
- Coral reef attributes associated with microplastic exposure.Coral reefs (Online) · 2025Article
- Coral garden conservation and restoration: how host taxon andFrontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- Microplastic Leachate Negatively Affects Fertilization in the Coral Montipora capitata.Integrative and comparative biology · 2024Article
- Cold-water coral mortality under ocean warming is associated with pathogenic bacteria.Environmental microbiome · 2024Article
- Article
- Ecophysiological and behavioural response of juveniles of the Chilean cold-water coral Caryophyllia (Caryophyllia) huinayensis to increasing sediment loads.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Effects of microplastic and heavy metals on coral reefs: A new window for analytical research.Heliyon · 2023Review
- Microplastics in the marine environment of St. Mary's Island: implications for human health and conservation.Environmental monitoring and assessment · 2023Article
- Recent insights into uptake, toxicity, and molecular targets of microplastics and nanoplastics relevant to human health impacts.iScience · 2023Review
- Microplastics: A Matter of the Heart (and Vascular System).Biomedicines · 2023Review
- Towards a scientific community consensus on designating Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems from imagery.PeerJ · 2023Article
- Plastic pollution of four understudied marine ecosystems: a review of mangroves, seagrass meadows, the Arctic Ocean and the deep seafloor.Emerging topics in life sciences · 2022Review
- Microplastics Affect the Inflammation Pathway in Human Gingival Fibroblasts: A Study in the Adriatic Sea.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Microplastics: impacts on corals and other reef organisms.Emerging topics in life sciences · 2022Article
- Microplastic ingestion by coral as a function of the interaction between calyx and microplastic size.The Science of the total environment · 2022Article
- No short-term effect of sinking microplastics on heterotrophy or sediment clearing in the tropical coral Stylophora pistillata.Scientific reports · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Plastic contamination is now recognized as one of the most serious environmental issues for oceans. Both macro- and microplastic debris are accumulating in surface and deep waters. However, little is known about their impact on deep marine ecosystems and especially on the deep-sea reefs built by emblematic cold-water corals. The aim of this study was to investigate whether plastics affected the growth, feeding and behaviour of the main engineer species, Lophelia pertusa. Our experiments showed that both micro- and macroplastics significantly reduced skeletal growth rates. Macroplastics induced an increased polyp activity but decreased prey capture rates. They acted as physical barriers for food supply, likely affecting energy acquisition and allocation. Inversely, microplastics did not impact polyp behaviour or prey capture rates, but calcification was still reduced compared to control and in situ conditions. The exact causes are still unclear but they might involve possible physical damages or energy storage alteration. Considering the high local accumulation of macroplastics reported and the widespread distribution of microplastics in the world ocean, our results suggest that plastics may constitute a major threat for reef aggradation by inhibiting coral growth, and thus jeopardise the resilience of cold-water coral reefs and their associated biodiversity.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.