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The faecal microplastic pump: Zooplankton efficiently transport microplastics to the ocean depths
Summary
Researchers quantified how zooplankton grazing and sinking fecal pellets drive the bulk of microplastic export below 1000 meters in the open ocean, identifying this "fecal pump" as a critical pathway for deep-sea microplastic sequestration that outweighs polymer-density-driven sinking in offshore waters.
of MP below 1000 m, modifying their global vertical distribution and budgets. These results further revealed that MP export is partly driven by polymer density in coastal regions, whereas grazing and sinking faecal pellets drive most of MP export in the open ocean. This faecal MP pump represents a critical mechanism for deep-sea MP sequestration and transforms our understanding of MP fate in oceanic systems.