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The faecal microplastic pump: Zooplankton efficiently transport microplastics to the ocean depths
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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.
More Papers Like This
The faecal microplastic pump: zooplankton efficiently transport microplastics to the ocean depths
AI summary Read the abstract
Tiny ocean creatures called zooplankton are eating floating plastic bits and pooping them out in pellets that sink to the deep sea, acting like a natural elevator that carries roughly a third of the ocean's "missing" microplastics down to depths below 1,000 meters. This matters because it helps explain where all the plastic we've dumped into the ocean actually ends up, and it means deep-sea ecosystems (and the food chains tied to them, including seafood we eat) are absorbing more plastic pollution than previously realized.
From the surface to the seafloor: How giant larvaceans transport microplastics into the deep sea
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Giant larvaceans — abundant gelatinous zooplankton — were shown in direct ocean observations to capture microplastics of all sizes in their mucus feeding structures and then package them into dense sinking fecal pellets. This biological pump mechanism could be a significant pathway for transporting microplastics from the surface ocean to the deep seafloor.
Microplastics Alter the Properties and Sinking Rates of Zooplankton Faecal Pellets
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Researchers found that when zooplankton ingest microplastics, the plastic particles become embedded in their fecal pellets, making those pellets smaller, less dense, and slower to sink. Since these pellets normally help transport carbon from the ocean surface to the deep sea as part of the biological pump, altered sinking rates could disrupt this important carbon cycle process. The study reveals a previously unrecognized way that microplastic pollution could affect ocean chemistry and climate regulation.
Modelling the global biological microplastic particle sink
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Researchers modeled the global biological sink for microplastic particles, estimating that ingestion and fecal pellet packaging by marine zooplankton accelerates the sinking of buoyant plastics to depth. This study suggests that biological processes may account for a substantial portion of the missing plastic that disappears from ocean surface surveys.
Regionally disparate ecological responses to microplastic slowing of faecal pellets yields coherent carbon cycle response
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This study modeled how microplastics slow the sinking of zooplankton fecal pellets and found that, despite regional variation in the ecological response, the net effect on the ocean carbon pump is a coherent reduction in carbon export to the deep ocean across different ocean regions.
Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.