SAMS researchers analysed deep-sea creature samples taken throughout four decades to carry out the study. (Photo: SAMS)
Deep-sea creatures’ microplastic ingestion not a new issue
UNITED KINGDOM
Wednesday, October 24, 2018, 02:50 (GMT + 9)
Marine creatures living in the deepest parts of the ocean have been feeding on microplastic particles for at least four decades, according to a new study.
To conduct the study, researchers at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) in Oban, Argyll, in Scotland, delved into the institute’s archived samples from the Rockall Trough, an area of deep sea off the west coast of Scotland, to assess the extent of microplastic ingestion in the stomachs of bottom-dwelling starfish and brittle stars.
These scientists found traces of eight different plastics, including polyester and nylon, in the stomachs of specimens that lived more than 2,000 metres below the ocean surface between 1976 and 2015 – and the levels of ingestion were similar throughout that period.
Images of specimens in situ (a,b) and close-up images of microplastic fibres exhibiting their interference colours (Photo: nature.com/articles/srep33997)
Across the time series, SAMS scientists found that nearly half of the starfish and brittle stars sampled had ingested microplastics, defined as small pieces of plastic less than 5 millimetres in size. When ingested by sea creatures, microplastics may be retained in their bodies and passed up the food chain.
The study, published in Environmental Pollution, follows on from SAMS research in 2017, which was the first to quantify the levels of microplastic ingestion in marine creatures living at depths of 2,200 metres.
“Mass production of plastics only began in the 1940s and 1950s, so it would be reasonable to expect less plastic in our earlier samples, with a subsequent upward trend to the present day levels, but we haven’t seen that. In fact, the level of microplastic ingestion is remarkably similar throughout the time series,” explained lead author Winnie Courtene-Jones, a University of the Highlands and Islands PhD student at SAMS.
Photo: Interactions of microplastic debris throughout the marine ecosystem (nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0116)
SAMS researchers had access to historical records collected from the annual Ellett Line scientific cruise, which began in 1975 and takes samples and observations at monitoring stations between Scotland and Iceland.
For his part, SAMS deep-sea ecologist Dr Bhavani Narayanaswamy, Winnie’s lead supervisor and a co-author on the report, pointed out that to find such high levels of microplastic ingestion among deep sea creatures sampled more than 40 years ago shows that plastic pollution in these oceans is not a new problem.
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