Preliminary Study on Determination of Microplastic in Biological Construction of Caddisfly in Freshwater Aquatic Ecosystem in Kelantan

Abstract

Microplastics are globally affected not only to the oceans or marine, but also freshwater systems that always been underestimated by some researcher. Nevertheless, the effect of microplastic in freshwater could be harm as in the oceans. This study was to determine the microplastic existence in the biological construction or casing of aquatic insects larvae in Kelantan freshwater ecosystem. Two sampling sites were selected namely, Sungai Galas and Sungai Chegeh in Gua Musang district, Kelantan. A total of 4 casing of caddisfly; Nectopsyche sp., Ylodes sp., Apatania sp. and Gumaga sp. were manually collected in both rivers and chemically digested. Micro-Fourier-transform infrared (μFTIR) spectroscopy were performed to detect the presence of microplastics in the cadisfly’s casing. As a result, Ylodes sp. found in Sungai Galas has the highest amount of microplastic recorded in the case frankly containing cellophane and chipboard compound. Then, followed by Nectopsyche sp. and Gumaga sp. Comparatively, the least case that contained microplastic is Apatania sp. which lack of chipboard compound and consist of more drugs and alcohol instead. Hence, the dominance microplastic compound discovered within all the casing were cellophane. Nevertheless, microplastics at biological construction diminish case stability and putting larvae in danger of being eaten by predators. Therefore, the larvae's chances of survival will be limited.