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Supplementary material from "Plastics everywhere: first evidence of polystyrene fragments inside the common Antarctic collembolan Cryptopygus antarcticus"
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Researchers found polystyrene fragments inside a common Antarctic soil invertebrate (a collembolan) for the first time, confirming that microplastics have infiltrated Antarctic terrestrial food webs. The plastic particles likely originated from a piece of polystyrene foam found nearby that was colonized by microalgae and fauna, then consumed.
There is evidence and serious concern that microplastics have reached the most remote regions of the planet, but how far have they travelled in terrestrial ecosystems? This study presents the first field-based evidence of plastic ingestion by a common and central component of Antarctic terrestrial food webs, the collembolan Cryptopygus antarcticus. A large piece of polystyrene (PS) foam (34 × 31 × 5 cm) covered by microalgae, moss, lichens and microfauna was found in a fellfield along the shores of the Fildes Peninsula (King George Island). The application of an improved enzymatic digestion coupled with Fourier transform infrared microscopy (µ-FTIR), unequivocally detected traces of PS (less than 100 µm) in the gut of the collembolans associated with the PS foam and documented their ability to ingest plastic. Plastics are thus entering the short Antarctic terrestrial food webs and represent a new potential stressor to polar ecosystems already facing climate change and increasing human activities. Future research should explore the effects of plastics on the composition, structure and functions of polar terrestrial biota.
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Plastics everywhere: first evidence of polystyrene fragments inside the common Antarctic collembolan Cryptopygus antarcticus
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Researchers found polystyrene fragments inside the collembolan Cryptopygus antarcticus collected from field sites in Antarctica, providing the first evidence of plastic ingestion by a terrestrial Antarctic invertebrate and showing microplastics have penetrated Antarctic land food webs.
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