Researchers have found microplastics less than 300 m in size in coral skeletons. The team developed a new protocol to extract and detect microplastics and applied it to coral samples from the Gulf of Thailand. The finding may also explain the 'missing plastic problem,' where about 70% of plastic in the oceans cannot be found.
Researchers have found microplastics less than 300 m in size in coral skeletons. The team developed a new protocol to extract and detect microplastics and applied it to coral samples from the Gulf of Thailand. The finding may also explain the 'missing plastic problem,' where about 70% of plastic in the oceans cannot be found. The corals may act as a 'sink' for microplastics, absorbing them from the marine environment.
"In Southeast Asia, plastic pollution has become a significant issue. Collectively, nearly 10 million tons of plastic waste are dumped annually, equivalent to 1/3 of the world's total," explains Assistant Professor Suppakarn Jandang from Kyushu University's Research Institute for Applied Mechanics and first author of the study."Some of this plastic is discharged into the ocean, where it degrades into microplastics.
"Coral has three main anatomical parts: the surface mucus, the outside of the coral body; the tissue, which is the inner parts of the coral; and the skeleton, the hard deposits of calcium carbonate they produce. Our first step was to develop a way to extract and identify microplastics from our coral samples," continues Jandang."We put our samples through a series of simple chemical washes designed to break apart each anatomical layer.
Further study is still necessary to understand the full impact of these findings on coral reefs and the global ecosystem.
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