Microplastics can spread via flying insects, according to research | Environment

Microplastics can escape water polluted by flying insects, reveal new research, contaminate new environments and threaten birds and other creatures that eat insects.

The scientists administered microplastics to mosquito larvae, which live in the water, but found that the particles remained inside the animals when they turned into flying adults. Other recent research has shown that half of the larvae of elephants and phryganes in the rivers of Wales contained microplastics.

The concern about microplastic pollution is growing rapidly as it is being discovered more and more often, and very little research has been done on how it might harm wildlife or humans. The particles may contain bacteria or toxic chemicals. Microplastics have been found in tap water all over the world, in large numbers in oceans and marine creatures and even in isolated Swiss mountains.

"It's a shocking reality that plastics contaminate almost every corner of the environment and its ecosystems," said Professor Amanda Callaghan, of the University of Reading, UK, who led the news mosquito research. "Recent attention has been paid to plastics polluting our oceans, but this study reveals that it is also in our sky."

The new study, published in the journal Biology Letters, used Culex pipiens Mosquitoes, as found around the world in many habitats. The researchers found that the larvae readily consumed fluorescent microplastic particles of 0.0002 cm.

"The larvae are filter feeders that push small combs to their mouths, so they can not really distinguish a little plastic and some food," Callaghan said. "They eat algae that are about the same size as these microplastics."

The larvae reached a stage of non-feeder pupae and emerged as adult mosquitoes, which still showed significant microplasticity. Researchers are now studying whether this damages mosquitoes.

Callaghan said that it was "very likely" that other flying insects that start as water larvae eat and also retain microplastics. Birds, bats and spiders are among the species that consume a large number of insects, suggesting that they also consume microplastics. "You can have swarms of insects," she said. "You could have a lot of plastic going up. It's totally depressing. These plastics will be around forever. "

Plastics have been found in many seabirds, but this is the first study suggesting that landbirds that eat insects are at risk. "This is a new way to get plastics up in the air and expose animals that are not normally exposed," Callaghan said. "We do not know what will be the impact."

Matt Shardlow, general manager of the conservation charity Buglife, said: "Aquatic insects are on the front line of microplastics. Each year, we emit billions of plastic fibers, many of which enter the rivers directly. It is therefore urgent to continue research on the role of microplastics in observed declines in aquatic life.

Many microplastics are fibers produced by synthetic garments during washing – a single wash can release 700,000 fibers. "As research advances, we can all think carefully about our clothing choices," said Shardlow. Other microplastics are formed by the abrasion of larger pieces of plastic in rivers and oceans.

Large pieces of plastic are easily visible and clearly harm animals, from turtles to albatrosses. But research has also found microplastics, defined as less than 5 mm, in many marine creatures, worms, plankton, and the food web for fishing. When they have been the subject of an investigation, it has been shown that they harm the health of animals.

Like the oceans, freshwater rivers and lakes are also heavily contaminated – a river near Manchester, UK, has the worst microplastic pollution recorded so far – but the impact on wildlife in these habitats has been much less studied.

Research in Welsh rivers has revealed the presence of microplastics in larvae, upstream and downstream of wastewater treatment plants, indicating that plastic pollution is entering rivers directly, not just wastewater.

The researchers, led by Professor Steve Ormerod of Cardiff University, said the general shortage of data on the effect of microplastics on freshwater creatures means that understanding the risk to the ecosystem remains "seriously limited. "

It is widely accepted that humans also consume microplastics. "We eat them all, no question," said Callaghan. Eating seafood such as mussels or cod is a way, while beer, sugar and sea salt all contain microplastics. The exposure is likely to increase, as plastic production is expected to increase by 40% over the next decade, prompting scientists to seek urgent research on the effects of microplastics on people.