Microplastics are causing extreme environmental issues around the world as they continue to pollute our land and water resources and endangering animals and plants, but unfortunately, their fate remains unknown.
Tiny Creature Fragments Plastic Faster
One of the larger problems we have now is the accumulation of plastic waste fragments through fragmentation, which is caused by physical processes that could take years or even decades to complete.
However, this procedure takes years and even decades to happen.
Nevertheless, one new and "completely unexpected" study shows that a tiny freshwater amphipod known as Gammarus duebeni could rapidly fragment plastics into various shapes and sizes, including what is known as nanoplastic less than one micron or one-thousandth of a millimeter, which are smaller than cells.
In a report by The Guardian, the tiny crustaceans were observed by scientists from University College Cork (UCC) located in Ireland, who found that not only does these 2-centimeter creatures ingest microplastics--they could also fragment them into tiny pieces in a matter of 96 hours or around four days.
Since they could break down plastic material into tinier-than-cells pieces, experts believe that they could negatively impact the environment compared to 5-millimeter microplastics.
"When I started studying this three years ago, it sounded so crazy that such small animals could be fragmenting plastics but our research shows that plastic fragments comprised nearly 66% of all observed microplastic particles accumulated in the guts of these animals," explained Dr. Alicia Mateos-Cardenas, the lead author of the paper.
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Tracking Down the Procedure
During the experiment, the researcher used polyethylene spherical microbeads, which is a common polymer found in plastic bottles with each of the beads tagged with a fluorescent dye.
This way, researchers could track them as they are ingested and broken down by the amphipods.
Within four days, these freshwater amphipods were exposed to high concentrations of microplastics.
Additionally, amphipods that were purged in pure water in the presence of a plant material that they consider as food indicates that the biological fragmentation may be closely related to their feeding process through the microscope.
Dr. Mateos-Cardenas explains that they could see how the tiny creatures ingested the plastic material, but they are still unsure how they were able to break down the microplastic beads.
"We need to investigate the actual mechanism of this biological fragmentation," the researcher said.
The result of their experiment was recently published in Scientific Reports.
Making the Issue More Complex
This could add a little insight into what happens with the plastic that reaches rivers and oceans and how widely it impacts the environment.
The scientists say that the implications are much wider as the amphipod they were studying is only one of the 200 Grammarus species that can be found around the world. They believe that the smaller particle size decreases, the more harmful it could be.
Mateos-Cardenas said that if plastic materials can go through cell walls, they could potentially accumulate in plants and animals and further up the food chain with unknown negative effects.
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Written by: Nhx Tingson
