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Microplastics have been found everywhere, from Arctic sea ice to German farmland, and a new study has revealed that these tiny pollutants could even have entered the sky.
The researchers found that when mosquito larvae living in ponds eat tiny pieces of plastic, the fragments remain in their bodies until they become winged adults.
Mosquitoes occupy a prominent place in the menus of birds, bats and larger insects, which raises concerns about the penetration of plastic into the food web.
Since plastic has emerged as a top environmental priority, scientists have struggled to understand the impact it has on the health of aquatic animals.
While whales choking with large pieces of plastic are the most obvious casualties, careful examination has shown that plankton, mussels and fish consume large amounts of microscopic microplastics.
In this context, the researcher on mosquitoes, Dr. Amanda Callaghan of the University of Reading, realized that the problem of plastic ingestion may not be limited to underwater creatures.
Plastic waste around the world: in pictures
1/15
A father and son on a makeshift boat made from polystyrene foam cross a river filled with garbage and pick up plastic bottles that they can sell in paint shops in Manila. The father and son team earn about three US dollars a day to reclaim recyclable materials from the river.
AFP / Getty
2/15
A composite image of the elements found on the shore of the Thames Estuary at Rainham, Kent. Tons of plastic and other waste lines are located along the bank of the Thames Estuary, an important feeding area for waders and other marine animals.
Getty Images
3/15
Children pick up plastic water bottles from the washed garbage in Manila Bay. According to the United Nations Environment Program, at the current rate of pollution, there will probably be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050.
AFP / Getty
4/15
Plastics and other debris border the bank of the Thames Estuary. In December 2017, Britain joined the other 193 countries of the UN and signed a resolution to help eliminate marine litter and microplastics in the sea. It is estimated that about eight million tons of plastic are found each year in the oceans of the world. Once in the ocean, it takes sometimes hundreds of years for the plastic to degrade, breaking down into smaller and smaller microplastics, which can be consumed by marine animals and end up in the chain. human food.
Getty
5/15
A landfill in Manila in 2013. The financial capital of the Philippines has banned disposable plastic bags and styrofoam containers as part of the capital's growing efforts to fight waste that aggravates deadly floods.
AFP / Getty Images
6/15
Children swim in the sea full of garbage in North Jakarta, Indonesia.
Getty
7/15
An Indian woman holds a pot filled with water from the Yamuna River polluted with moss and poisonous moss to serve as a ritual at the river bank in New Delhi, India. The Yamuna River, like all other sacred rivers in India, has been heavily polluted for decades. The river that rises in a glacier of the pristine and unpolluted Himalaya, and flows through Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh before merging with the Ganges to Allahabad, was once the lifeline of the capital Indian. At present, it is nothing more than a large open-air sewer that chokes on industrial and domestic wastes, including plastic, flowers and debris, and has virtually no aquatic life. .
EPA
8/15
Plastic waste is dumped on South Troon beach in Scotland. Recent reports from scientists have confirmed that plastics discharged into the world's oceans are reaching a dangerous level, plastic microparticles now being present in filter feeders and among the sand grains of our beaches.
Getty
9/15
Children pick up the plastic for sale and recycling in a polluted river in the suburbs of Manila. The city's garbage disposal agency traps solid waste floating in streams that have been thrown into the water by slum dwellers along the upstream banks.
AFP / Getty
10/15
View of Carpayo beach in La Punta, Callao, about 15 km from Lima. In 2013, the NGO VIDA called Carpayo beach one of the most polluted in the country – 40 tons of waste on every 500 m2.
AFP / Getty
11/15
Trash from Kamilo Beach to Hawaii.
Gabriella Levine / Flickr
12/15
A scavenger picks up plastic cups to be recycled in a littered river near the Pluit Dam in Jakarta.
Reuters
13/15
Garbage fills the Omoa beach in Honduras. Floating masses of garbage off some of the pristine beaches of the Caribbean testify to a vast and growing problem of indiscriminately rejected plastic pollution in our oceans, say locals, activists and experts.
AFP / Getty
14/15
A man descends into a river filled with garbage in Manila. Plastic waste will overtake fish in the oceans by 2050 unless the world takes drastic measures to recycle the materials, a report warned in 2016.
AFP / Getty
15/15
Waste on East Beach, Henderson Island (Pitcairn Islands), south of the Pacific Ocean. The uninhabited island was found to have the highest density of plastic waste in the world, with more than 3,500 additional waste wastes dumped daily on one of its beaches.
EPA
1/15
A father and son on a makeshift boat made from polystyrene foam cross a river filled with garbage and pick up plastic bottles that they can sell in paint shops in Manila. The father and son team earn about three US dollars a day to reclaim recyclable materials from the river.
AFP / Getty
2/15
A composite image of the elements found on the shore of the Thames Estuary at Rainham, Kent. Tons of plastic and other waste lines are located along the bank of the Thames Estuary, an important feeding area for waders and other marine animals.
Getty Images
3/15
Children pick up plastic water bottles from the washed garbage in Manila Bay. According to the United Nations Environment Program, at the current rate of pollution, there will probably be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050.
AFP / Getty
4/15
Plastics and other debris border the bank of the Thames Estuary. In December 2017, Britain joined the other 193 countries of the UN and signed a resolution to help eliminate marine litter and microplastics in the sea. It is estimated that about eight million tons of plastic are found each year in the oceans of the world. Once in the ocean, it takes sometimes hundreds of years for the plastic to degrade, breaking down into smaller and smaller microplastics, which can be consumed by marine animals and end up in the chain. human food.
Getty
5/15
A landfill in Manila in 2013. The financial capital of the Philippines has banned disposable plastic bags and styrofoam containers as part of the capital's growing efforts to fight waste that aggravates deadly floods.
AFP / Getty Images
6/15
Children swim in the sea full of garbage in North Jakarta, Indonesia.
Getty
7/15
An Indian woman holds a pot filled with water from the Yamuna River polluted with moss and poisonous moss to serve as a ritual at the river bank in New Delhi, India. The Yamuna River, like all other sacred rivers in India, has been heavily polluted for decades. The river that rises in a glacier of the pristine and unpolluted Himalaya, and flows through Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh before merging with the Ganges to Allahabad, was once the lifeline of the capital Indian. At present, it is nothing more than a large open-air sewer that chokes on industrial and domestic wastes, including plastic, flowers and debris, and has virtually no aquatic life. .
EPA
8/15
Plastic waste is dumped on South Troon beach in Scotland. Recent reports from scientists have confirmed that plastics discharged into the world's oceans are reaching a dangerous level, plastic microparticles now being present in filter feeders and among the sand grains of our beaches.
Getty
9/15
Children pick up the plastic for sale and recycling in a polluted river in the suburbs of Manila. The city's garbage disposal agency traps solid waste floating in streams that have been thrown into the water by slum dwellers along the upstream banks.
AFP / Getty
10/15
View of Carpayo beach in La Punta, Callao, about 15 km from Lima. In 2013, the NGO VIDA called Carpayo beach one of the most polluted in the country – 40 tons of waste on every 500 m2.
AFP / Getty
11/15
Trash from Kamilo Beach to Hawaii.
Gabriella Levine / Flickr
12/15
A scavenger picks up plastic cups to be recycled in a littered river near the Pluit Dam in Jakarta.
Reuters
13/15
Garbage fills the Omoa beach in Honduras. Floating masses of garbage off some of the pristine beaches of the Caribbean testify to a vast and growing problem of indiscriminately rejected plastic pollution in our oceans, say locals, activists and experts.
AFP / Getty
14/15
A man descends into a river filled with garbage in Manila. Plastic waste will overtake fish in the oceans by 2050 unless the world takes drastic measures to recycle the materials, a report warned in 2016.
AFP / Getty
15/15
Waste on East Beach, Henderson Island (Pitcairn Islands), south of the Pacific Ocean. The uninhabited island was found to have the highest density of plastic waste in the world, with more than 3,500 additional waste wastes dumped daily on one of its beaches.
EPA
"We suddenly realized that mosquitoes, although they live in fresh water, are very different from other creatures studied up here, because they have a life stage that leaves water," said Dr. Callaghan, who led the new research. told L & # 39; Independent.
"We thought that if mosquitoes ate plastics, does that mean plastics leave the water and pollute a new environment?"
Previous research has shown that mosquito larvae – tube-shaped creatures that live on the surface of the water and filter out particles to eat – are able to eat small pieces of plastic.
But no one has ever verified whether these fragments are preserved as the larvae transition before becoming fully developed adults.
In an article published in the scientific journal Letters of biologyDr. Callaghan and his team have noted the advances made by plastic from a water source to mosquitoes flying in the air.
As the mosquito larvae transform into their intermediate pupa forms, the anterior part of their gut dissolves, but scientists have discovered that the plastics retained in the lower part are being transported to the lobster. adulthood.
"That means you can have plastics at the bottom of the pond that are getting in the air and being eaten by spiders, bats, and animals that would not normally have access to that. plastic, "said Dr. Callaghan.
"You could have a dragonfly, for example, by eating mosquitoes as they emerge. Thus, you could eat a lot of mosquitoes with plastic, then a bird could eat and get an even bigger dose.
This all-female team is attacking plastic pollution in the Pacific Ocean
Research on microplastics is still in its infancy and, having proven that plastic can be transferred in this way to insects kept in a laboratory, researchers now want to determine the extent of the problem in the real world. .
Dr. Callaghan said that although their study focused on mosquitoes, it could apply to all flying insects that have underwater life cycle stages – which means that plastic contamination could be prevalent with the animals.
"It is only a proof of concept, but we know that these plastics are present in the environment in very large numbers. Some lakes contain a lot of plastics, "said Dr. Callaghan.
"They will be filled with insects that will eat them. There is no doubt that it will happen in nature. "
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