Lead
Recently, scientists discovered a new type of plastic particles in water samples from Poyang Lake: they are very small, even much smaller than the microplastics we know, and closer to nanoscales, and the source of these plastic particles is actually a tiny aquatic animal in the water, rotifers.
This amazing rotifer produces about 133 million plastic particles a day, but these plastic particles are likely to pose a major threat to ecosystems and human health.
So, how did this rotifer make these nanoscale plastic particles?
How exactly do they "eat" microplastics and then "spit them out" nanoplastic particles?
What role do rotifers play in this process?
At the same time, what kind of impact will these microplastic particles have on the surrounding environment?
1. The manufacturing "factory" of microplastics.
When it comes to rotifers, we believe everyone is familiar with them, rotifers are a very common type of tiny aquatic animals in nature, they are very small, and their body length is only about 0.5mm.
However, these nanoscale plastic particles produced by rotifers will have a significant impact on the surrounding environment.
This impact not only affects the development of the surrounding ecosystem, but also has the potential to cause harm to human health.
How do rotifers "eat" microplastics and "spit out" nanoplastic particles?
What kind of secret is hidden in this?
The living habits of rotifers are in the water, they are not a "garbage disposal machine", and it is impossible to be a "crusher" of plastic products, but rotifers can produce a large number of nanoplastic particles, what is going on?
Unlike other microorganisms, rotifers feed and chew in a way that allows them to process plastic and convert it into nanoscale plastic particles.
In the mouthparts of rotifers, there are a pair of powerful pincers, which are the vital organs used by rotifers to ingest food from water.
However, it is precisely because of the presence of this pair of pincers that the rotifers constantly ingest the plastic particles in the water, and then constantly bite them up, eventually biting them into nano-sized plastic particles.
From a biological point of view, the principle of rotifers' ability to "bite" plastic and form nano-sized plastic particles is not complicated, it is just a natural response of rotifers.
In the rotifer population, there is a small group of individuals with more powerful pincers, which makes this small group of individuals not only ingest a large amount of food, but also more plastic particles in the process of ingesting food.
Rotifers live by swallowing some of the liquid in the water, and at the same time, they will also swallow some tiny particles into their bodies, which may be some food scraps or some plastic particles.
As microorganisms, in the process of swallowing food, they store food in the esophagus, and then move the food to the esophagus for digestion in the next period, and at the same time, some residues from the method are excreted from the body.
However, when rotifers encounter plastic particles, they store them in their stomachs, chew them into smaller particles, store them in the esophagus again, and excrete them.
It is precisely because of the physiological characteristics of rotifers themselves that they are able to chew these plastic particles into nano-sized particles, which are eventually excreted from the body, thus forming nano-scale plastic particles.
2. Rotifers produce 133 million nanoscale plastic particles every day.
In the process of studying rotifers, they finally found that in the rotifer population in Poyang Lake, there are 1/4 individuals, which can store plastic particles, bite them into small particles, and finally excrete them, forming about 665 million nanoscale plastic particles.
In the rotifer population, there are another 10 trillion rotifers, and these rotives will produce about 133 million nanometer plastic particles every day.
But what do these nanoscale plastic particles mean for the environment?
First of all, nano-scale plastic particles are more tiny than microplastics, and they also have more active movements, which allows them to penetrate into some biological cells more easily, thus posing a certain threat to living organisms.
At the same time, these nano-scale plastic particles will continue to move in the water, and in the process of their movement in the water, they will continue to absorb some toxic and harmful substances, and then be adsorbed by some microorganisms.
These microorganisms continue to move in the water, and then they are adsorbed by other microorganisms, and this "chain reaction" will continue to amplify, and eventually the concentration of toxic and harmful substances will be amplified many times, thus posing a greater threat to the organism.
At the same time, these nano-scale plastic particles may combine with some other substances in the water to eventually form a new toxic substance, which is a hidden danger to human health.
Therefore, these nano-scale plastic particles may not only have an impact on the ecological environment, but also pose a potential threat to human health.
All of these require us to strengthen the management of microplastics in our future lives, and strengthen research in this area, so as to find a more effective way to solve the current problem.
3. Release and impact of nanoplastics.
In Poyang Lake, rotifers are able to produce 133 million nano-sized plastic particles per day, which means that rotifers are able to produce a large number of nanoplastic particles every day, what does this mean for the water environment?
These nano-scale plastic particles may continuously pollute the water environment, and at the same time, they will also pose a certain threat to the microorganisms living in the water environment.
Because they are smaller and have a larger surface than ordinary microplastic particles, they can be more easily swallowed by microorganisms, however, these microbes have a stronger ability to survive and swallow these nanoscale plastic particles before excreting them.
However, due to the nano-scale plastic particles, the volume is too small, after being swallowed by microorganisms, they will continue to arrange and combine inside the microorganisms, and eventually form a new toxic and harmful substance, which is a hidden danger to the surrounding ecological environment.
At the same time, these toxic and harmful substances will have an impact on other microorganisms living in the water, causing these microorganisms to gradually decrease, and eventually lead to the imbalance of the entire ecosystem.
For human health, these toxic and harmful substances may eventually pose a certain threat to the human body with the circulation of water and air, which may have potential harm to human health.
At the same time, these nano-scale plastic particles may be further degraded and eventually enter the human food chain, posing a threat to human health.
epilogue
Rotifers can produce 133 million nanometer plastic particles every day, which may pose a potential threat to the surrounding ecological environment and human health, and at the same time, it also reminds us that we need to strengthen the management of microplastics in our future lives.