Regionally disparate ecological responses to microplastic slowing of faecal pellets yields coherent carbon cycle response
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Kvale, Karin
Hunt, Claire
James, Aidan
Koeve, Wolfgang
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Microplastic is a ubiquitous marine pollutant whose small dimensions make it biologically available to phytoplankton and zooplankton. These organisms are crucial as the basis of the marine food web and for the export of organic material in the form of faecal pellets from the surface to deeper in the water column, forming a long-term carbon sink. Previous laboratory studies have demonstrated empirically that ingestion of low density microplastics reduces the sinking rates of zooplankton faecal pellets. This study uses a complex earth system model to analyse this effect and assess its wider impacts in a changing climate. Results show that the slowing of faecal pellet sinking stimulates changes to ecosystems regionally and reduces ocean carbon uptake by about 4.4 Pg C between the years 1950-2100, 0.24% of anthropogenic emissions over this time. However, perturbation of organic particle fluxes is significant, especially in gyres, and of the order of climate change impacts over the same time period. We calculate that plastics carbon has a 3 orders of magnitude greater impact on marine ecosystems than atmospheric carbon over our centennial timescale. Large uncertainties in model parameters and simplistic model structure suggest our results should be interpreted as motivation to further investigate parameter estimation, calcification responses to pollution, and the combined effects of multiple impact mechanisms on ecosystems.
Date Issued
2023-02-09
Date Acceptance
2023-01-25
Citation
Frontiers in Marine Science, 2023, 10
ISSN
2296-7745
Publisher
Frontiers Media S.A.
Journal / Book Title
Frontiers in Marine Science
Volume
10
Copyright Statement
©2023 Kvale, Hunt, James and Koeve. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
License URL
Subjects
ALTER
biogeochemistry
carbon cycle
climate change
COPEPOD
DYNAMICS
Environmental Sciences
Environmental Sciences & Ecology
EXPORT
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Marine & Freshwater Biology
microplastic (MP)
modelling
ocean pollution
PHYTOPLANKTON
RATES
Science & Technology
SYSTEM CLIMATE MODEL
UNIVERSITY
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
1111838
Date Publish Online
2023-02-09