The occurrence of microplastics in gut contents of endemic barb Sahyadria chalakkudiensis (Menon, Rema Devi & Thobias, 1999) inhabiting river systems of Western Ghats, South India

Abstract

Sahyadria chalakkudiensis, the endemic barb inhabiting rivers of Western Ghats, S. India has been supporting considerable aquarium trade and is known to dwell in upstream areas of these rivers. A concerted study on its feeding biology from 730 fishes has revealed consistent occurrence of microplastics in their guts, pointing to serious plastic pollution affecting riverine ecosystem. This fish has omnivorous feeding habit as evident from percentage index of relative indices of various prey items as animal matter (62%), filamentous algae (26%), sand particles (4%) and other matter (8%). Among other matter, microplastic fibres were consistently encountered in 86 guts (11.8% of total guts examined) collected in all months except September. The monthly occurrence of guts containing microplastic fibres showed significant correlation to guts containing filamentous algae (r=0.95, p