Caddis Fly Larvae Are Now Building Shelters Out of Microplastics (arstechnica.com) 26
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Crawling along the world's river bottoms, the larvae of the caddis fly suffer a perpetual housing crisis. To protect themselves from predators, they gather up sand grains and other sediment and paste them all together with silk, forming a cone that holds their worm-like bodies. As they mature and elongate, they have to continuously add material to the case -- think of it like adding rooms to your home for the rest of your life, or at least until you turn into an adult insect. If the caddis fly larva somehow loses its case, it's got to start from scratch, and that's quite the precarious situation for a defenseless tube of flesh. And now, the microplastic menace is piling onto the caddis fly's list of tribulations.
Microplastic particles -- pieces of plastic under 5 millimeters long -- have already corrupted many of Earth's environments, including the formerly pristine Arctic and deep-sea sediments. In a study published last year, researchers in Germany reported finding microplastic particles in the cases of caddis flies in the wild. Then, last month, they published the troubling results of lab experiments that found the more microplastic particles a caddis fly larva incorporates into its case, the weaker that structure becomes. That could open up caddis flies to greater predation, sending ripple effects through river ecosystems. In the lab, the researchers found that the larvae chose to use two kinds of microplastics to build their cases, likely because the plastic is lighter than the sand, so it's not as hard to lift. The problem is that the cases with more plastic and less sand collapse more easily, weakening the larvae's protection from predatory fish, among other things.
A more long-term concern is bioaccumulation. "A small fish eats a larva, a bigger fish eats the smaller fish, all the way on up, and the concentrations of microplastic and associated toxins accumulate over time," the report says. "The bigger predators that people eat, like tuna, may be absorbing those microplastics and the chemicals they leach."
The study has been published in the journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research.
Microplastic particles -- pieces of plastic under 5 millimeters long -- have already corrupted many of Earth's environments, including the formerly pristine Arctic and deep-sea sediments. In a study published last year, researchers in Germany reported finding microplastic particles in the cases of caddis flies in the wild. Then, last month, they published the troubling results of lab experiments that found the more microplastic particles a caddis fly larva incorporates into its case, the weaker that structure becomes. That could open up caddis flies to greater predation, sending ripple effects through river ecosystems. In the lab, the researchers found that the larvae chose to use two kinds of microplastics to build their cases, likely because the plastic is lighter than the sand, so it's not as hard to lift. The problem is that the cases with more plastic and less sand collapse more easily, weakening the larvae's protection from predatory fish, among other things.
A more long-term concern is bioaccumulation. "A small fish eats a larva, a bigger fish eats the smaller fish, all the way on up, and the concentrations of microplastic and associated toxins accumulate over time," the report says. "The bigger predators that people eat, like tuna, may be absorbing those microplastics and the chemicals they leach."
The study has been published in the journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research.
It's Reagan's fault (not Obama's) (Score:2)
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Drumpf literally gutted the EPA like a fish and now we have microscopic orange plastic floating on all the water. Coincidence? I THINK NOT.
Thank God it's floating, if it sank then we'd have orange-headed caddis fly larvae because they grow their "shell" at the top.
Can you imagine gutting a fish and having that fall out?!
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the more microplastic particles a caddis fly larva incorporates into its case, the weaker that structure becomes.
So we need to make our plastics less biodegradeable! Won't someone, please, think of the larvae?
Only one solution exists (Score:3)
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IIUC, a lot of the micro-particle plastic fibers come from washing clothes...that are built out of or with plastics. Polyester, Orlon, Nylon, etc.
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Easy to remove those materials too though.
A bit sad on the water-proof stuff but ..
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Pedantic doesn't even begin to describe this post.
Re:"Corrupted"... what does that even mean? (Score:4, Informative)
Pedantic doesn't even begin to describe this post.
The word you are looking for is "sophomoric [dictionary.com]".
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How dare you, this is science! Don't you *believe in science*?
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If you like to be sciencey I recommend not believing anything at all, actually.
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The way I would characterize the parent post is "stupid", or possibly "shallow".
To pick one major flaw in the reasoning, atoms are not the same in every organization. That things are made from atoms is true, but rather irrelevant. Life doesn't work directly with atoms, but rather with organizations of atoms. Salt, NaCl, is not the same as chlorine. Moderate amounts of salt are necessary. Chlorine is poisonous, and elemental chlorine is not needed by any mammal. I'm not sure it's needed by any earthly l
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How would you determine what permutations of environmental atoms are "corrupted" versus which are not?
Time series analysis. Try harder.
Need to update the old story (Score:1)