Oysters that consume the small pieces of plastic littering the world's oceans produce fewer and less-robust offspring than their unexposed counterparts.
Millions of tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans every year, and tiny 'microplastic' fragments — those smaller than 5 millimetres in diameter — could be harming marine life. Arnaud Huvet at the French marine-research agency IFREMER in Plouzané and his colleagues placed Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas; pictured) in water laced with micrometre-sized polystyrene spheres, at levels estimated to be similar to those where oysters live in the wild. After two months, oysters exposed to the plastic produced fewer and smaller egg cells, less-mobile sperm and fewer offspring than did animals raised in water without the plastic. The offspring also grew more slowly.
Ingested plastic might be disturbing the oysters' digestion and releasing endocrine-disrupting chemicals, which affect reproductive systems, the authors say.
Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA http://doi.org/bcdm (2016)
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Ocean plastic hurts oysters. Nature 530, 133 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/530133d
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/530133d
