Motion behavior and metabolic response to microplastic leachates in the benthic foraminifera Haynesina germanica

Plastic is one of the major sources of pollution in modern oceans. When in seawater, toxic plasticizers (the additives incorporated in plastic polymers during manufacturing processes) typically diffuse and accumulate in sediments and in benthic and pelagic organisms' tissues. These plastic leachates affect survival, behavior and metabolism of various marine metazoans, but little effort was placed in studying their effect on protists. In this contribution we monitored the short-term effect of polypropylene (PP) leachates at both environmentally realistic and chronic concentrations on Haynesina germanica locomotion and metabolism. We found that PP leachates has no lethal nor effects on this species activity. Taken together, these results suggest that benthic foraminifera may be more resistant than marine metazoans to plasticizers pollutants.