Effects of antibiotics and microplastics on the growth of Sebastes schlegelii

College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, Shandong, 266100, China

^* Liuqingqing Liu’s e-mail: llqq@ouc.edu.cn

Abstract

The pollution of antibiotics and microplastics in mariculture environments has elicited widespread concern due to their potential threats to health of aquatic organisms and stability and function of marine ecosystems. However, the toxicological outcomes of the combined exposure of antibiotics and microplastics on fish are still unclear. In this work, two kinds of veterinary antibiotics commonly used in marine culture environment were selected to explore the effects of their combined exposure with polyamide microplastics on the growth performance and nutritional quality of Sebastes schlegelii. The results showed that, compared with the unexposed group, the individual exposure of antibiotic and microplastic significantly reduced the weight gain rate (194.3–200.4%) and specific growth rate (211.4–218.1%) of the juvenile fish. Compared with the unexposed group, the weight gain rate and specific growth rate of juveniles were significantly reduced by 272.8–347.5% in the combined exposure, indicated that the combined exposure had a synergistic effect on the growth inhibition of juvenile fish. This study provided basic theoretical data for the risk assessment of antibiotics and microplastics in the marine culture environment.