Abstract:
In this paper I read over and discussed 3 scientific articles each talking about
microplastics but different things while still referring to microplastics are their main topic. Each
article was different as one talked about an analysis based on an autopsy on dead animals to
discover if they were filled with microplastics. Another discusses how the food chain as a whole
is being affected by microplastics and how it’s a much greater problem than we realize. The final
article talks about how microplastics came to be while also explaining in a much more complex
level the side effects of microplastics and the dangers it can cause. With the combination of these
3 articles I was able to create 3 subtopics to help explain my main overview which is the
correlation of microplastics and marine life. After researching I came to the conclusion that
microplastics have a much greater impact than we thought and we should start on planning how
to stop its spread before it’s too late.
Introduction:
As we all know microplastics are a problem. Not only to us but to every other living thing
out there. Animals are facing huge problems with microplastics when talking about their living
conditions, diet, and health. Many people are still unaware of the impact microplastics cause as it
can be deadly and create problems that will also greatly affect us as well. Specifically here the
main concern is marine life and the animals that inhabit it. Using the information from 3
scientific studies on, “Documentation of Microplastics in Tissues of Wild Coastal Animals” by
Marte Haave et al., “Microplastics in the Food Chain” by Klára Cverenkárová et al., and
“Microbial degradation of microplastics by enzymatic processes: a review” by Ahmad Razi
Othman et al. to help grasp a better understanding on how microplastics came to be in the area,
bodily effects on microplastics, and how it will affect the food web/chain.
Body 1: How microplastics populated the area
As we all know microplastics are a problem, but how did it come to be?
Throughout the years especially in between 1950 and 2015, “more than 7800 million tonnes of
plastic were produced, generating 6300 million tonnes of waste, of which approximately 9% was
recycled. Twelve percent of this waste was incinerated and the remaining 79% of the waste
ended up in landfills or in the environment”(Cverenkárová et al., 2021, p.1). Having only 9% of
plastic being actually recycled is a very small number as throughout the years we have put a
large emphasis on putting trash where it should be so we do not damage the earth and the things
that reside within it. Continuing, the remaining waste that end up in landfills end up reaching
aquatic environments from the plastic traveling throughout the air to rivers which then reach the
sea where it is estimated that 8 million tonnes of plastics enter the seas and oceans each year
(Cverenkárová et al., 2021, p.1). As for where the word microplastics comes from, the term was
first ever mentioned by an African scientist in the 1990s in his article which, “was then
recognized worldwide and has been widely used to describe small plastic particles (Alimi et al.
2021)”(Othman et al., 2021, p.2). The travel of large plastics also have a connection to the
growth of microplastic as,“Otters sleep and nest on land in inlets and sheltered areas where the
shoreline is often heavily polluted with accumulated macro and mega-plastics” (Haave et al.,
2021, p.8) The cause of this is mainly debris but debris overtime will likely become
microplastics which won’t just create problems for animals living by the sea but also for the ones
living within it. Overall the contamination of microplastics in the ocean heavily affects the living
conditions of aquatic creatures and also to those who live beside it but we need to ask ourselves
what is the best way to stop this or are we in too deep?
Microplastics and its internal effects to the body
As for the animals living in the oceans it is a much larger problem for them then the ones
who live by it. They are much more prone to consuming microplastics which get stuck in their
tissue not being able to be removed. Samples done on mammals, birds, and fishes show that,
“Eight of the 13 investigated animals had quantifiable levels of MP in at least one of the tissue
samples. Seven of the eight animals had MP in the stomach wall or intestines, while four
different individuals had detectable levels of MP in muscles and/or liver”(Haave et al., 2021, p.6)
This test were done as autopsies on animals that were already dead which were 6 otters in which
5 died by drowning and 1 by roadkill, 1 harbor seal, 2 sawbill ducks, 1 common guillemot which
all died by drowning as well, 3 cod, and 3 flounder which were caught (Haave et al., 2021, p.4,
Table 1). As for where the microplastics were found within these animals according to the data,
“In falling order, MP was most frequently found in tissue samples from intestines (5), stomachs
(4), livers (3) and muscles (3)”(Haave et al., 2021, p.6). Uncovering this information is scary as
we do not even know what these animals were doing when they were alive to find out how they
even were filled with microplastics. As for what microplastics can do if it is inside of you,
“Microplastics were also found to induce inflammatory responses, reduce innate immunity,
reduce reproduction rate, and promote organ failure in fish”(Othman et al., 2021, p.3). This
information is only correlated to fish, but humans may also see side effects with microplastics
containing polystyrene. A brief understanding of what polystyrene is that is was,“Synthesized by
BASF in the 1930s… polystyrene in a form of microparticle or nanoparticle is proved to be toxic
towards animals, humans and plants”(Othman et al., 2021, p.8). Not only that but when tested on
fish:
Polystyrene is shown to significantly affect fish reproduction systems over time (Wang et
al. 2019; Zhu et al. 2020; Qiang and Cheng 2021). The absorption of polystyrene is also
reported to affect the molecular level. Absorption of polystyrene in the cell promotes
DNA damage in erythrocytes and brain tissue (Zhang et al. 2011; Farrelly and Shaw
2017; Sökmen et al. 2020; Guimarães et al. 2021). (Othman et al., 2021, p.8)
Even though this was tested on fish there is still the possibility that if it is consumed by humans
on a much larger scale it would affect us the same as well as there are many studies already out
there that show microplastics and their effects on male fertility. Microplastics at its current state
isn’t really problematic for human health, but the more we ignore this ever growing problem
soon enough, microplastics are going to be something we want to avoid at all costs.
Microplastics and its effects on the food chain/web
As for microplastics interfering with the food chain/web plastic particles has reached
everywhere to lower trophic levels infesting itself within plankton reaching to higher trophic
levels such as invertebrates and vertebrates through its way of transport by direct consumption or
trophic transfer (Cverenkárová et al., 2021, p.8). To be more direct on how this happens the
lowest on the chain, “Filamentous fungi, algae, and, above all, bacteria have been found on the
surface of microplastics… They hypothesized that plastics could then act as vectors of
pathogenic microorganisms that can enter the digestive tract of fish and birds after swallowing”
(Cverenkárová et al., 2021, p.5). Alternatively fish or more specifically cod are generalist and
are, “more likely to try ingesting anything that looks edible, including plastic. Such generalist
feeding habits have previously been correlated with higher plastic ingestion (Silva et al. 2018)”
(Haave et al., 2021, p.8). With that it really isn’t hard for fish to consume microplastics as it has
mixed itself in with its everyday food and sometimes won’t even be mixed in and be the plastic
itself the fish eats. As for fish consuming microplastics there are animals that consume fish
which increases the travel of microplastics even further. Usually when predators eat fish they eat
it whole which causes a problem if the fish is filled with microplastics as “eating the prey whole,
which the seal does, would expose the mammals to MP in the GI-tract of the prey items, and
therefore, potential intestinal uptake and transport into mammalian tissues as well” (Haave et al.,
2021, p.8). This would not happen if the fish was eaten partially avoiding the GI tract but this is
something other animals should not worry about as it’s something that shouldn’t be in a fish in
the first place. The longer we prolong solving this problem it won’t just be sea food that has
traces of microplastics but meat from other mammals we consume, letting things go on like this
is as if you are asking for microplastics to be served to you on a silver platter.
Conclusion:
Currently microplastics are only a problem for marine life and other animals who live
their lives by the sea and it will only get worse if we leave things as is. Microplastics are much
more dangerous than what people really believe. Would you want for one day your tissues filled
with microplastics or needing to dissect a fish every time before buying to make sure you aren’t
paying for a microplastic contaminated fish, these are all problems that will arise if we do not
stop and try to solve this problem. So are you willing to make a change now before things get
worse or let the world doom down and crumble.
Work Cited
-Haave M, Gomiero A, Schönheit J, Nilsen H and Olsen AB (2021) Documentation of
Microplastics in Tissues of Wild Coastal Animals. Front. Environ. Sci. 9:575058.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2021.575058
-Cverenkárová, K.; Valachovičová, M.; Mackuľak, T.; Žemlička, L.; Bírošová, L. Microplastics
in the Food Chain. Life 2021, 11, 1349. https://doi.org/10.3390/life11121349
-Othman, A.R., Hasan, H.A., Muhamad, M.H. et al. Microbial degradation of microplastics by
enzymatic processes: a review. Environ Chem Lett 19, 3057–3073 (2021).
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10311-021-01197-9

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