The vast category of microplastics in the marine environment, encompassing among other aspects their persistence, degradation and impact on biota, has become an important topic of research. In spite of environmental health concerns, much work has yet to be done on understanding the potential roles of polymer sources, composition and particle sizes in causing adverse effects which have already been observed in a number of biota. The present study was aimed at adding to current knowledge by verifying if, and to what extent, embryogenesis in the sea urchin species Paracentrotus lividus is adversely affected by polystyrene and polymethylmethacrylate virgin microparticles over a size range 1–230 μm and at concentrations of 0.1–10 mg L⁻¹. Developing embryos which came in contact with the microplastics only after fertilisation did not display a significant increase of developmental defects. Unlike embryo exposures, when P. lividus sperm were exposed to the microplastics or their leachates, modest, yet significant effects were observed, both in terms of decreased fertilisation rate and increase of transmissible damage to offspring. Further, it was noted that larvae more readily ingested polymethylmethacrylate than polystyrene microparticles after 3 days which may represent a route for enhancing the toxicity of the former compared to the latter. Overall, these findings provide evidence for lesser sensitivity of P. lividus early life stages to microplastics compared to other urchins such as Sphaerechinus granularis. In turn, the more robust response of P. lividus highlights the importance of choosing an appropriate test species with the highest sensitivity when investigating mildly harmful materials.

海洋环境中大量的微塑料，包括其持久性，降解性和对生物群的影响等，已成为研究的重要课题。尽管对环境健康有担忧，但是在了解聚合物来源，组成和颗粒尺寸在引起不良影响方面的潜在作用还有许多工作要做，许多生物群已经观察到这一点。本研究旨在通过验证海胆物种Paracentrotus lividus的胚胎发生是否以及在多大程度上受尺寸为1-230μm，浓度范围为0.1-230μm的聚苯乙烯和聚甲基丙烯酸甲酯原生微粒的不利影响，从而增加当前的知识。10毫克L ^-1。仅在受精后才与微塑料接触的发育中的胚胎并未显示出发育缺陷的显着增加。与胚胎暴露不同，当青紫假单胞菌精子暴露于微塑料或其浸出液中时，在降低受精率和增加对子代的可传播损害方面均观察到了适度但显着的作用。此外，注意到在3天后，幼虫比聚苯乙烯微粒更容易摄入聚甲基丙烯酸甲酯，这可以代表与后者相比增强前者的毒性的途径。总的来说，这些结果提供的证据的较小敏感度苋P.到塑料微粒早期生命阶段相比其他海胆如Sphaerechinus granularis。反过来，青紫假单胞菌的更强的响应性突出显示了在研究轻度有害物质时选择具有最高灵敏度的合适测试物种的重要性。