Effect of suspended microplastics on larval swimming speed of the cold-water scleractinian coral of Desmophyllum pertusum

• Main Authors: Sire de Vilar, Anaïs, Carreiro-Silva, Marina, Rakka, Maria, Pham, Christopher Kim, Pereira, João Miguel, Strömberg, Susanna M, Larsson, Ann I
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2024
• Subjects: Cnidaria; Cold water corals; Deep sea; Distance; Duration; Experiment duration; iAtlantic; Image analysis; NIH ImageJ; MTrackJ plugin; Individual ID; Integrated Assessment of Atlantic Marine Ecosystems in Space and Time; Laboratory experiment; larvae; Lophelia pertusa; Microplastics; North Atlantic; Number of points; Remote operated vehicle; Replicate; ROV; scleractinians; Species; unique identification (Semantic URI); unique identification (URI); Speed; swimming; Tisler_Sampling_Lophelia_pertusa_5; Tisler_Sampling_Lophelia_pertusa_7; Tisler_Sampling_Lophelia_pertusa_8; Tisler Reef; Skagerrak; Tjärnö_Lophelia_Experiment; Tjärnö; Schweden; Treatment
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.964198; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.964198

We report the results of a short-term experiment testing the effects of microplastics (MP) on the larvae of the cold-water coral Desmophyllum pertusum (syn. Lophelia pertusa). The experiment was conducted at the Tjärnö Marine Laboratory Facilities (University of Gothenburg, Sweden). To simulate MP pollution, we used 6 μm yellow-green fluorescent polystyrene microbeads (catalog no: 17156, Polysciences). The experimental design consisted of three treatments: control treatment with (1) no MP addition (0 MP/mL), (2) addition of 1000 pristine MP/mL, and (3) addition of 1000 biofouled MP/mL. Larvae were exposed to the different treatments in 75 mL culture flasks mounted on a rotating plankton wheel to keep sediments in suspension. After a 24-hour period, the potential impact of MP on larval swimming speed was analyzed using image analysis software (Meijering et al. 2012).