Turning microplastics into nanoplastics through digestive fragmentation by Antarctic krill

Amanda Dawson; So Kawaguchi; Catherine K King; Kathy A Townsend; Robert King; Wilhelmina M Huston; Susan M Bengtson Nash

doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03465-9

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Turning microplastics into nanoplastics through digestive fragmentation by Antarctic krill

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Turning microplastics into nanoplastics through digestive fragmentation by Antarctic krill

Amanda Dawson, So Kawaguchi, Catherine K King, Kathy A Townsend, Robert King, Wilhelmina M Huston and Susan M Bengtson Nash

Nature Communications, Vol.9, 1001

2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03465-9

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Abstract

ecology

environmental impact

marine biology

Microplastics (plastics <5 mm diameter) are at the forefront of current environmental pollution research, however, little is known about the degradation of microplastics through ingestion. Here, by exposing Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba) to microplastics under acute static renewal conditions, we present evidence of physical size alteration of microplastics ingested by a planktonic crustacean. Ingested microplastics (31.5 µm) are fragmented into pieces less than 1 µm in diameter. Previous feeding studies have shown spherical microplastics either; pass unaffected through an organism and are excreted, or are sufficiently small for translocation to occur. We identify a new pathway; microplastics are fragmented into sizes small enough to cross physical barriers, or are egested as a mixture of triturated particles. These findings suggest that current laboratory-based feeding studies may be oversimplifying interactions between zooplankton and microplastics but also introduces a new role of Antarctic krill, and potentially other species, in the biogeochemical cycling and fate of plastic.

Details

Title: Turning microplastics into nanoplastics through digestive fragmentation by Antarctic krill
Authors: Amanda Dawson (Author) - Griffith University
So Kawaguchi (Author) - Australian Antarctic Division
Catherine K King (Author) - Australian Antarctic Division
Kathy A Townsend (Author) - University of Queensland
Robert King (Author) - Australian Antarctic Division
Wilhelmina M Huston (Author) - University of Technology, Sydney
Susan M Bengtson Nash (Author) - Griffith University
Publication details: Nature Communications, Vol.9, 1001; 8
Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
Date published: 2018
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03465-9
ISSN: 2041-1723
Copyright note: Copyright © 2018. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Organisation Unit: School of Science and Engineering - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Science, Technology and Engineering
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99451444302621
Output Type: Journal article