Plastic pollution is ubiquitous with increasing recognition of its direct effects on species’ fitness. Little is known, however, about its more subtle effects, including the influence of plastic pollution on the morphological, functional and behavioral traits of organisms that are central to their ability to withstand disturbances. Among the least obvious but most pernicious forms of plastic‐associated pollution are the chemicals that leach from microplastics. Here, we investigate how such leachates influence species’ traits by assessing functional trait compensation across four species of intertidal mussels, through investigations of byssal thread production, movement and aggregation behavior for mussels held in natural seawater or seawater contaminated by microplastic leachates. We found no evidence for compensation of functional traits, but for each species, microplastic leachates reinforced one trait while others remained unaffected. Two species (Perna perna and Mytilus galloprovincialis), were characterized by a resistance strategy to disturbance; they produced more byssal threads in microplastic leachate seawater than in control seawater, while motility and aggregation remained essentially unaffected. In contrast, the other two species (M. edulis and Choromytilus meridionalis), showed a resilience strategy to disturbance through increased motility and aggregation in leachate seawater, while byssal thread production remained unaffected. These results suggest that the competitive abilities of intertidal mussels may be related to their sensitivity to microplastic leachates or other chemical disturbance. Importantly, the trait strengthening observed will affect the ability of these mussels to form spatially patterned beds, with implications for their quality as autogenic ecological engineers or foundation species. Thus, our findings have implications for the ability of mussel beds to tolerate disturbance, and hence for central ecosystem services, such as their ability to support biodiversity and enhance secondary and tertiary production. The results suggest that an inconspicuous aspect of plastic pollution has the potential to influence other communities and ecosystems in powerful ways.

中文翻译：

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微塑性渗滤液诱导潮间带贻贝的物种特异性性状增强。

随着人们越来越认识到塑料污染对物种适应性的直接影响，无处不在。然而，人们对其微妙的影响知之甚少，包括塑料污染对生物体的形态，功能和行为特征的影响，而这些微生物是其抵御干扰能力的关键。与塑料相关的污染最不明显但最有害的形式是从微塑料中浸出的化学物质。在这里，我们通过调查天然海水或被微塑性浸出液污染的海水中贻贝的底线生产，运动和聚集行为，通过评估四种潮间贻贝的功能性补偿来研究此类浸出物如何影响物种的性状。我们没有发现任何补偿功能性特征的证据，但是对于每个物种，微塑性渗滤液增强了一个特征，而其他则保持不变。两种（Perna perna和Mytilus galloprovincialis的特点是具有抗干扰的策略。与对照海水相比，它们在微塑性渗滤液海水中产生了更多的底线，而运动性和聚集性基本上未受影响。相反，其他两个物种（M. edulis和Choromytilus meridionalis）显示了一种通过在沥滤液海水中增加运动性和聚集来抵抗干扰的恢复策略，而底线的生产仍然不受影响。这些结果表明潮间带贻贝的竞争能力可能与其对微塑性渗滤液或其他化学干扰的敏感性有关。重要的是，观察到的性状增强将影响这些贻贝形成空间格局的河床的能力，并影响其作为自生生态工程师或基础物种的质量。因此，我们的发现对贻贝床的耐受能力具有影响，因此对中央生态系统服务也具有影响，例如其支持生物多样性和增强第二和第三产业的能力。