<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Glob Change Biol. 2021;27:2645–2655</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15570</span><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></b></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></b></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:18pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Microplastics and the functional traits of fishes: A global
meta-analysis</span></b></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Martina
Salerno1 | Manuel Berlino1,2 | M. Cristina Mangano3 | Gianluca Sarà1</span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">1 Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e del Mare (DiSTeM),
Università degli Studi di Palermo, Palermo, Italy 2 National Institute of
Oceanography and Applied Geophysics – OGS, Trieste, Italy 3 Stazione Zoologica
Anton Dohrn, Department of Integrative Marine Ecology (EMI), Sicily Marine
Centre, Palermo, Italy<b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"></span></b></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></b></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></b></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Abstract </span></b></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Over the years, concern about the effects of
microplastics has grown. Here, we answered the main question “What are the
impacts of microplastics on the functional traits of fish species?” through a
meta-analysis. The general impact of microplastic exposure on the functional
traits of fishes and specifically on eight variables, namely, behaviour,
development, fecundity, feeding, growth, health, hatching and survival was
explored. Subgroup analyses were performed to detect correlations between the
impact of microplastics and the following factors: species, life stage,
habitat, water column habitat, day of exposure to microplastics and
microplastic size, type and shape. A meta-regression analysis allowed
understanding the correlation between the impact of microplastics and the size
of organisms. Generally, microplastics have a negative effect on the functional
traits of fishes. Feeding and behaviour, followed by growth showed the greatest
impact. Among the subgroup analysis, four of the eight variables considered
showed a significant difference between groups: species, life stage,
microplastic shape and days of exposure to microplastics. Depending on their
life stage, organisms may be more sensitive to microplastic pollution. Changes
in growth rates, development of early life stage and behavioural patterns in
fishes may have a negative effect on the structure and functions of aquatic
ecosystem in the long term and consequently affect the ability of aquatic
ecosystems to provide ecosystem services and sustain human communities</span></p></div><div id="DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2"><br> <table style="border-top:1px solid #d3d4de">
        <tr>
      <td style="width:55px;padding-top:18px"><a href="https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail" target="_blank"><img src="https://ipmcdn.avast.com/images/icons/icon-envelope-tick-round-orange-animated-no-repeat-v1.gif" alt="" width="46" height="29" style="width: 46px; height: 29px;"></a></td>
                <td style="width:470px;padding-top:17px;color:#41424e;font-size:13px;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;line-height:18px">Libre de virus. <a href="https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail" target="_blank" style="color:#4453ea">www.avast.com</a>               </td>
        </tr>
</table>
<a href="#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2" width="1" height="1"></a></div>