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Microplastic fragmentation by rotifers in aquatic ecosystems contributes to global nanoplastic pollution
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Scientists discovered that rotifers, tiny zooplankton found in water bodies worldwide, grind microplastics into nanoplastics during feeding, generating over 34,000 submicron particles per animal per day. Both marine and freshwater rotifers could fragment multiple plastic types, including polyethylene and polystyrene. This finding reveals a previously unknown biological pathway that is constantly converting microplastics into even smaller and potentially more dangerous nanoplastics in water systems globally.
The role of aquatic organisms in the biological fragmentation of microplastics and their contribution to global nanoplastic pollution are poorly understood. Here we present a biological fragmentation pathway that generates nanoplastics during the ingestion of microplastics by rotifers, a commonly found and globally distributed surface water zooplankton relevant for nutrient recycling. Both marine and freshwater rotifers could rapidly grind polystyrene, polyethylene and photo-aged microplastics, thus releasing smaller particulates during ingestion. Nanoindentation studies of the trophi of the rotifer chitinous mastax revealed a Young's modulus of 1.46 GPa, which was higher than the 0.79 GPa for polystyrene microparticles, suggesting a fragmentation mechanism through grinding the edges of microplastics. Marine and freshwater rotifers generated over 3.48 × 10 and 3.66 × 10 submicrometre particles per rotifer in a day, respectively, from photo-aged microplastics. Our data suggest the ubiquitous occurrence of microplastic fragmentation by different rotifer species in natural aquatic environments of both primary and secondary microplastics of various polymer compositions and provide previously unidentified insights into the fate of microplastics and the source of nanoplastics in global surface waters.
More Papers Like This
Microplastic fragmentation by rotifers in aquatic ecosystems contributes to global nanoplastic pollution
AI summary Read the abstract
This is a source dataset for a study demonstrating that rotifers — tiny aquatic organisms — fragment microplastics into nanoplastics through feeding, contributing to global nanoplastic pollution in aquatic ecosystems.
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Researchers discovered that the freshwater amphipod Gammarus duebeni can rapidly break down polyethylene microplastics into smaller fragments, including nanoplastics, during its feeding process. The fragmentation was closely linked to feeding behavior, with more and smaller fragments produced when food was present during depuration. The study highlights that aquatic organisms may play a previously underestimated role in determining the environmental fate of microplastics by accelerating their breakdown into even smaller particles.
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Researchers fed Antarctic krill large microplastic particles and found the krill ground them into nanoplastics through digestive fragmentation, revealing that marine organisms can act as biological mechanisms for converting microplastics into potentially more hazardous nanoplastic-sized particles.
From ingestion to aggregation: contrasting roles of prey and predator in microplastic processing by freshwater rotifers
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Tiny freshwater organisms called rotifers eat microplastics and can even pack them into waste pellets that sink, potentially helping remove plastic from water. But when one rotifer species preys on another, it disrupts this natural cleanup process, showing that who eats whom in nature affects where microplastics end up, including possibly in the water and food we rely on.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.