Do northern whitefish consume microplastics in the food chain?

   Numerous studies show that microplastics are present in animal foods that receive particles from the environment or in food chains, as in the case of marine and freshwater fish. Microplastics can enter the fish body through active and passive pathways, including the filtering type of feeding and due to the consumption of particles in food chains.
Current experiment of the TSU team is focused on the PS microspheres consumption and accumulation by the peled fish, also called the northern whitefish. Peled was chosen as a study object because it is a typical object of fishing in the traditional life of the indigenous peoples of Siberia.
   Peled are cultivated at the partner enterprise, Scientific and production association “Tomsk – Ecology”, which will allow collecting the material for research without the need to remove fish larvae from natural ecosystems. The aim of the study is modeling of particle flows in a part of the food chain – from crustacean plankton to fish larvae.