MANCHESTER – Scientists have found a new way in which microplastics and textile microfibres find their way into deep sea marine environments – through submarine avalanches.
It’s estimated that over 10 million tons of plastic pollution is exported into the oceans each year with around 99 per cent of this is stored in the deep sea. However, it was previously not known how plastic pollution gets to the deep sea from land.
The researchers say that studying the distribution of different types of marine plastic and microfibres on the seafloor is important because the size and type of plastic particle determines how toxins build up the surface, as well as how likely it is the plastic will enter the gut of any animal that eats it, and what animal may eat it.
