From afar, it might look like Michelle Blewitt is teaching bystanders how to pan for gold, as she vigorously shakes a sieve full of sand on a beach, but on closer inspection, she is teaching locals how to hunt for microplastics.

One thing you should know about me is that I am from New York and I am half Italian. That means when I like something,…

Researchers in a new U.K.-led study found a staggering volume of microplastics on the seafloor. At up to 1.9 million pieces on a single square meter, it’s the highest level on record.[...]

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Crawling along the world's river bottoms, the larvae of the caddis fly suffer a perpetual housing crisis. To protect themselves from predators, they gather up sand grains and other sediment and paste them all together with silk, forming a cone that holds their worm-like bodies. As they mature and elongate, they have to continuously add material to the case -- think of it like adding rooms to your home for the rest of your life, or at least until you turn into an adult insect. If the caddis fly larva somehow loses its case, it's got to start from scratch, and that's quite the precarious situation for a defenseless tube of flesh. And now, the microplastic menace is piling onto the caddis fly's list of tribulations. Microplastic particles -- pieces of plastic under 5 millimeters long -- have already corrupted many of Earth's environments, including the formerly pristine Arctic and deep-sea sediments. In a study published last year, researchers in Germany reported finding microplastic particles in the cases of caddis flies in the wild. Then, last month, they published the troubling results of lab experiments that found the more microplastic particles a caddis fly larva incorporates into its case, the weaker that structure becomes. That could open up caddis flies to greater predation, sending ripple effects through river ecosystems. In the lab, the researchers found that the larvae chose to use two kinds of microplastics to build their cases, likely because the plastic is lighter than the sand, so it's not as hard to lift. The problem is that the cases with more plastic and less sand collapse more easily, weakening the larvae's protection from predatory fish, among other things. A more long-term concern is bioaccumulation. "A small fish eats a larva, a bigger fish eats the smaller fish, all the way on up, and the concentrations of microplastic and associated toxins accumulate over time," the report says. "The bigger predators that people eat, like tuna, may be absorbing those microplastics and the chemicals they leach." The study has been published in the journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research.

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Mediterranean sediments are shown to have up to 1.9 million tiny plastic pieces per square metre.

(American Association for the Advancement of Science) Microplastic particles entering the sea surface were thought to settle to the seafloor directly below them, but now, a new study reveals that slow-moving currents near the bottom of the ocean direct the flow of plastics, creating microplastic hotpots in sediments of the deep sea.

(University of Manchester) An international research project has revealed the highest levels of microplastic ever recorded on the seafloor, with up to 1.9 million pieces in a thin layer covering just 1 square meter.

By Sherry P. Broder HONOLULU (August 28, 2019)—Since the 1950s when plastics were first produced, more than 150 million tons of plastic debris have accumulated in the world’s oceans. Marine plastic litter includes large items, such as nets, floats, and other fishing debris, plus tiny microplastic particles that are pervasive and practically invisible to the naked eye—but equally harmful. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates that more than 35 percent of all the primary plastics that end up in the oceans are microplastics and that most of these tiny particles originate from textiles. Ingestion of plastic particles by fish, bivalves, and other seafood is particularly concerning for humans, in part because little is known about the pesticides that are...

This is a summary only. Click the title for the full article, or visit www.EastWestCenter.org/Research-Wire for more.

The public consultation launched by the European Chemicals Agency (“ECHA”) on the topic of microplastics closed on 20 September 2019 with the submission of 477 comments. The consultation followed the publication by ECHA earlier this year...

A shrimp-like creature found 6 kilometres down in the Pacific Ocean’s deepest trench has been named Eurythenes plasticus after the microplastics found in its gut

Tiny particles of plastic are in our food, water and even the air we breathe. We investigate the impact they have inside our bodies

Slow-moving underwater currents are leading to build ups of microplastics in biologically rich areas on the sea floor

Microplastics pollution is causing disruption and behavioural changes among hermit crab populations, researchers have claimed.

Caddis fly larvae typically construct protective cases out of sand grains and silk.

Mediterranean sediments are shown to have up to 1.9 million tiny plastic pieces per square metre.

Ocean pollution 'threatening biodiversity more than is currently recognised', warn researchers

Researchers melt an ice core taken from Antarctica 10 years ago and find dozens of microplastic particles, including polyethylene used to make plastic bags.

We hear a lot about plastics breaking down at sea, but scientists are discovering that a shocking quantity of plastic enters the ocean already in microscopic form.

The levels were so high that scientists are revising up their estimates for global marine microplastic pollution.

And researchers estimate there's another 3 trillion pieces in surface sediments.

Current water treatment can't remove these wastes that are increasingly implicated in serious environmental effects

This could mean we're drinking our plastic waste.

An Irish study found that pollution affects cognition and they're unable to detect an ideal shell when they see one.

Slow-moving underwater currents are leading to build ups of microplastics in biologically rich areas on the sea floor

As microplastics continue to fill the world's oceans and rivers, one mysterious yet resourceful insect is using the pollutants to build shelters for itself, though the shells aren't as strong as natural ones.

Watch the jellyfish-like larvacean capture tiny floating bits of plastic, enabling the pinkie-sized critter to eliminate the plastic as waste that falls to the seafloor.

Lusher, Amy, author

Tearing and cutting lead to measurable debris from various forms of plastic

Stephanie Wright of King's College London discusses what's known about microplastics and how much more there is to learn