These are single-celled algae drifting in the upper layers of the sea, converting sunlight and CO2 into oxygen and sugar through photosynthesis<\/a>.<\/p>\n Phytoplankton are one of the most important things on the planet. And they now share the ocean with something that\u2019s getting in their way.<\/p>\n Microplastics<\/a> are everywhere in the ocean now, until the most remote stretches of open water on Earth.\u00a0<\/p>\n A new study led by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology<\/a> (NTNU) set out to investigate what is all that plastic actually doing to the ocean\u2019s ability to absorb carbon?<\/p>\n The research was led by Francesca Verones at NTNU\u2019s Department of Energy and Process Engineering.\u00a0<\/p>\n Small particles, several problems<\/p>\n Scientists collected phytoplankton data from climate zones around the world and combined it with laboratory data on how microplastics affect algal growth<\/a>. <\/p>\n The team used the results to calculate the impact of different plastic concentrations on carbon uptake<\/a>, both regionally and globally<\/p>\n \u201cThe ocean plays a crucial role in absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. Between 25 and 30 per cent of all human-generated CO2 is absorbed by the ocean,\u201d Verones said.<\/p>\n \u201cPhytoplankton plays an important role in this process. So, what happens if marine microplastics affect the plankton?\u201d<\/p>\n The answer is: several things, none of them good.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some plastics \u2013 PVC in particular \u2013 are directly toxic to algae. Others block sunlight from penetrating deep into the water, which limits photosynthesis.\u00a0<\/p>\n Microplastics can physically damage algae cells, or trigger oxidative stress that disrupts how they function.\u00a0<\/p>\n Most vulnerable places are hit hardest<\/p>\n The most troubling finding is a geographic one.\u00a0<\/p>\n The regions where microplastics cause the most damage to carbon uptake are the same regions where carbon uptake matters most: arid and tropical zones.\u00a0<\/p>\n In those areas, the researchers calculated that microplastics could reduce carbon absorption by 25,000 tons per year in arid regions and 48,000 tons in tropical ones.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe must bear in mind that the amount of microplastics in the ocean is increasing all the time,\u201d Verones said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAll the plastic that is discarded in the natural environment will eventually end up in the ocean. So the concentrations are going to keep on increasing.\u201d<\/p>\n The bigger picture<\/p>\n This study is part of a broader EU-funded project examining plastic\u2019s impact on the ocean through what researchers call a life cycle assessment.<\/p>\n This is a framework that traces a product\u2019s environmental footprint from manufacture through use to disposal and eventual breakdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n The idea is to stop looking at environmental problems one at a time and start seeing how they connect.<\/p>\n The triple planetary crisis<\/p>\n The project has three strands. One tracks how plastic harms marine biodiversity<\/a> \u2013 through animals swallowing it, getting tangled in it, or being physically damaged by it.\u00a0<\/p>\n A second examines how floating plastic spreads invasive species<\/a> across oceans, carrying organisms into waters they\u2019d never naturally reach. <\/p>\n The third \u2013 this study \u2013 asks what plastic does to ecosystem services, starting with carbon uptake.<\/p>\n Those three strands map onto what the UN has called the \u201ctriple planetary crisis\u201d: climate change, biodiversity<\/a> loss, and pollution.\u00a0<\/p>\n They tend to get treated as separate problems with separate budgets and separate summits. In the real ocean, they\u2019re the same problem, happening to the same water, affecting the same organisms at the same time.<\/p>\n Broader implications of the study <\/p>\n This is the first study to specifically calculate how plastic affects ocean carbon uptake and fold that finding into a life cycle assessment.\u00a0<\/p>\n The fact that it took this long is a quiet indictment of how siloed environmental research has been, keeping the plastic, carbon, and biodiversity crises separate.<\/p>\n Phytoplankton are easy to overlook. They\u2019re invisible and they live far from most of the places humans pay attention to.\u00a0<\/p>\n Their work \u2013 photosynthesis happening in billions of microscopic cells across the world\u2019s oceans \u2013 goes completely unnoticed unless something starts to go wrong with it.<\/p>\n Something is starting to go wrong with it. And unlike a changing climate or a shifting ocean current<\/a>, this is a problem we are manufacturing ourselves and shipping into the sea every single day.<\/p>\n The study is published in the journal Ecosystem Services<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter<\/a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.<\/p>\n Check us out on EarthSnap<\/a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls<\/a> and Earth.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Between a quarter and a third of all the carbon dioxide humans produce every year gets absorbed by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,82],"class_list":["post-460267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n<\/a><\/p>\n