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Updated: Jan 3, 2026
Assessing Intertidal Populations of the Invasive European Green Crab
Published on: September 16, 2020
A baseline study of microplastics in the burrowing crab (Neohelice granulata) from a temperate southwestern Atlantic
Diana M Villagran1, Daniela M Truchet1, Natalia S Buzzi2
1Instituto Argentino de Oceanografía (IADO), Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS) - CONICET, Bahía Blanca, Camino La Carrindanga km 7, Edificio E1, C.C 804, 8000, Bahía Blanca, Argentina.
Abstract:
Growing evidence has demonstrated that microplastics (MPs) are available for a wide range of marine organisms, with filter-feeding bivalves and crabs being especially vulnerable. The crab Neohelice granulata is considered a key and structuring species in the Bahía Blanca Estuary (BBE) (SW Atlantic) and its ecological role makes this species especially vulnerable to several pollutants. In this study, male specimens of N. granulata and water samples were collected at three sites in the BBE for the presence of MPs. Different types of MPs were found in all the crabs and the water column samples, although the most frequent were fibers <500-1500 μm, mainly blue. This is the first study to identify MPs in the gills and digestive tract of N. granulata. Moreover, gills presented higher total abundances of MPs than the digestive tract, which suggests that in this case the main uptake of MPs would be by adherence to the gills.
