Biological impact of microplastics on marine animals

Biological impact of microplastics on marine animals

There are now 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic in the worlds oceans, with an estimated 10% of the plastics we produce ending up in the oceans. At the University of Exeter we have been doing research into the impacts of the smaller pieces of plastic less than 5mm in size, called microplastics, on the health of marine animals. Our research has shown that tiny marine animals called zooplankton, which are very important food sources for many larger animals like fish and whales, can eat these microplastics. Zooplankton eating microplastics then eat less of their normal food which means they get less energy from their diet, which means they have less energy for growth and reproduction.

Scientists Dr Ceri Lewis, Professor Tamara Galloway and Dr Matthew Cole have been working with Encounter Edu and Snowline Productions to produce a full set of GCSE science educational resources on the issue of marine microplastics. These resources are directly based on the NERC-funded science that they are doing looking at the biological impact of microplastics on marine animals, focussing particularly on zooplankton. These resources are funded by NERC and free for anyone in the world to download and use. We want to raise awareness of the issue of microplastics amongst school children as it is one of the major threats to the health of our oceans and is something we can all do something about.