Environmentally relevant concentrations and sizes of microplastic do not impede marine diatom growth

Highlights: • Effect of MP on a marine diatom's growth at realistic concentrations was examined. • P. tricornutum was exposed to a realistic size mixture of PE granules (10–106 µm). • No growth inhibition to P.tricornutum by PE granules up to 1.25 × 10⁷ particles/L. • Particle size of PE microbeads had no effect on microalgae growth. • Actual sizes and concentrations of PE MP was verified. The current knowledge about the ecological effects of microplastic (MP) remains limited, and to-date ecotoxicity tests often utilize standard microplastic with one or two distinct size classes and expose the organisms to unrealistically high MP concentrations. We exposed the marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum to microplastic particles of a mimicked realistic size frequency distribution complemented with serial experiments with distinct size classes. To do so, we exposed this diatom to a concentration series of different sized polyethylene (PE) microbeads (sizes: 10–106 µm; 1.25 ×10²–1.25 ×10⁷ particles/L) in a 72-h growth inhibition test. No effect on the growth of P. tricornutum by virgin PE microbeads up to 1.25 × 10⁷ particles/L (or 499 mg/L), indicating environmentally relevant concentrations and sizes of MP does not alter the growth of marine diatoms. Results of smaller sized MPs (10–20 µm) did not differ from those obtained with larger MPs (90–106 µm) and mix sized MPs (10–106 µm), i.e. no impact on the microalgae growth. As a pioneer work, our results contribute with high quality dose-response data to an improved risk assessment of microplastic under realistic present and future marine MP pollution.