Nature Communications (Mar 2018)

Turning microplastics into nanoplastics through digestive fragmentation by Antarctic krill

  • Amanda L. Dawson,
  • So Kawaguchi,
  • Catherine K. King,
  • Kathy A. Townsend,
  • Robert King,
  • Wilhelmina M. Huston,
  • Susan M. Bengtson Nash

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03465-9
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

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Microplastics are emerging ocean contaminants, but their fates in the ocean environment are poorly understood. Here the authors show that Antarctic krill digest micro plastics into nano plastics, thereby generating particles of a size that can cross biological and physical barriers.