Meeting Abstract
Plastic waste and debris have greatly increased in the marine environment during the past 50 years. Not only do these plastics entangle and get ingested by marine mammals, turtles, and sea birds, but they also leach chemicals, such as bisphenol-A (BPA) and styrene into the aquatic environment, sometimes at high concentrations. While some of these chemicals are known to be toxic, few studies have examined their effects on broadcast spawning organisms, specifically at environmentally relevant concentrations. California purple sea urchins, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, were utilized to examine effects of BPA and styrene on gametes and developing embryos. Previous research has demonstrated that BPA and styrene decrease successful fertilization and delay development of sea urchins, though no previous studies have examined effects on S. purpuratus development. We exposed eggs, sperm, or both to environmentally relevant concentrations of BPA or styrene (100µg/L – 1000µg/L) to test the hypothesis that exposure would lead to developmental abnormalities, including increased time to first cleavage and later developmental hallmarks. While fertilization was not affected by exposure, time to first cleavage was on average faster in exposed vs. unexposed gametes (eggs: 16.92 ± 5.62 minutes; sperm: 9.13 ± 2.24 minutes; both: 18.06 ± 6.27 minutes). However, later development was greatly affected by both chemicals, as normality decreased by as much as 90% in some treatments. Examining how these chemicals affect development will add to our understanding of how plastic pollution is affecting ecosystems.
