Five hundred million years to mobility: directed locomotion and its ecological function in a turtle barnacle.

Movement is a fundamental characteristic of life, yet some invertebrate taxa, such as barnacles, permanently affix to a substratum as adults. Adult barnacles became 'sessile' over 500 Ma; however, we confirm that the epizoic sea turtle barnacle, Chelonibia testudinaria, has evolved the capacity for self-directed locomotion as adults. We also assess how these movements are affected by water currents and the distance between conspecifics. Finally, we microscopically examine the barnacle cement. Chelonibia testudinaria moved distances up to 78.6 mm yr-1 on loggerhead and green sea turtle hosts. Movements on live hosts and on acrylic panels occasionally involved abrupt course alterations of up to 90°. Our findings showed that barnacles tended to move directly against water flow and independent of nearby conspecifics. This suggests that these movements are not passively driven by external forces and instead are behaviourally directed. In addition, it indicates that these movements function primarily to facilitate feeding, not reproduction. While the mechanism enabling movement remained elusive, we observed that trails of cement bore signs of multi-layered, episodic secretion. We speculate that proximal causes of movement involve one or a combination of rapid shell growth, cement secretion coordinated with basal membrane lifting, and directed contraction of basal perimeter muscles.

The gut retention time of microplastics in barnacle naupliar larvae from different climatic zones and marine habitats.

Microplastic ingestion has been widely documented in marine zooplankton, but the retention time of microplastics in their digestive gut are still poorly studied, especially among species from different climatic zones and marine habitats. This study evaluated the ingestion and gut retention time of four sizes of fluorescent microplastic beads (1.3, 7.3, 10.6, and 19.0 µm) in stage II naupliar larvae of nine barnacle species from different habitats (epibiotic on turtles, mangroves, coral reefs, and rocky shores) and climatic zones (subtropical/tropical and temperate). Microbeads were not lethal to all species (climatic zones/habitats) tested from the four sizes of non-fluorescent virgin microbeads (1.7, 6.8, 10.4 and 19.0 µm, each at concentrations 1, 10, 100, and 1000 beads mL-1). Gut retention time of microplastic beads in barnacle naupliar larvae significantly increased with decreasing size. Microbeads resided in digestive tracts generally 3-4 times longer in rocky shore and coral reef barnacles than in muddy shore and epibiotic ones. However, species from different climatic zone did not differ in retention time. Our results suggested nauplius larvae from rocky shore and coral reef barnacles appear to be more susceptible to the impacts of longer retained microplastics (e.g., toxic chemicals present on the surface).

Intergenerational microplastics impact the intertidal barnacle Amphibalanus amphitrite during the planktonic larval and benthic adult stages.

Microplastic exposure in one generation of marine organism is believed to impact future generations; the nature of this impact, however, remains unclear, especially across different life stages. We investigated within-generational, latent, and intergenerational effects of various sizes (1.7, 6.8, 10.4, and 19.0 µm) and concentrations (1, 10, 100, and 1000 beads mL-1) of polystyrene microplastics on the planktonic larval and benthic adult life stages of the intertidal barnacle Amphibalanus amphitrite. We exposed parents to microplastics during different developmental stages and examined the life history traits of their offspring. Microplastics had prominent intergenerational-but no within-generational-effects. Parental exposure to 1.7, 6.8, and 10.4 µm microplastics from the larvae to adults significantly increased offspring larval mortality. 1.7 and 6.8 µm microplastics at 1000 beads mL-1 delayed larval development in offspring. Intergenerational effects were observed when microplastics were exposed to parent larvae, suggesting that parental experiences during sensitive early-life stages can have profound impacts across generations. Adverse intergenerational effects of microplastics might drastically reduce larval recruitment and threaten long-term zooplankton sustainability.

Effects of polystyrene microplastics on larval development, settlement, and metamorphosis of the intertidal barnacle Amphibalanus amphitrite.

The effects of microplastic on mortality and sublethal responses on larval development of meroplankton are still largely unknown. Present study investigated the effects of four sizes of virgin spherical polystyrene microplastics (diameter 1.7, 6.8, 10.4, 19.0 µm) on naupliar (stage II-VI) and cypris larvae of barnacle Amphibalanus amphitrite at environmentally relevant concentrations (1, 10, 100, 1000 beads mL-1). Essential life-history traits, including mortality, development time and rates of growth, settling, and metamorphosis were measured throughout the entire larval development. Feeding experiments were conducted to evaluate if microplastics decreased naupliar feeding due to physical impacts or selective feeding of nauplii. The results showed that A. amphitrite stage II nauplii were able to ingest and efficiently egest all sizes of microplastics. All the life-history endpoints measured were not significantly affected by all sizes of microplastics at any concentration tested. Presence of all sizes of microplastics did not cause physical interference on naupliar feeding and all stages of nauplius larvae (stage III-VI) did not selectively feed on microplastics. However, the feeding ability of stage III nauplius appeared to be affected by 1.7 µm at 1000 beads mL-1 which was possibly due to individual variations rather than microplastics' impacts. Overall, the full larval development of barnacle A. amphitrite was not affected by microplastics at environmentally relevant concentrations under laboratory condition.