A surprising amount of plastic pollution in the ocean may wind up in a previously overlooked spot: the skeletons of living corals.
Up to about 20,000 metric tons of tiny fragments called microplastics may be stored in coral skeletons worldwide every year, says ecologist Jessica Reichert of Justus Liebig University Giessen in Germany. That corresponds to nearly 3 percent of the microplastics estimated to be in the shallow, tropical waters where corals thrive.
Reefs are typically found near coasts where polluted waterways can drain to the sea, placing corals in potential microplastic hot spots.
“We don’t know what consequences this [storage] might have for the coral organisms, [or for] reef stability and integrity,” Reichert says. It “might pose an additional threat to coral reefs worldwide.”
Up to about 20,000 metric tons of tiny fragments called microplastics may be stored in coral skeletons worldwide every year, says ecologist Jessica Reichert of Justus Liebig University Giessen in Germany. That corresponds to nearly 3 percent of the microplastics estimated to be in the shallow, tropical waters where corals thrive.
Reefs are typically found near coasts where polluted waterways can drain to the sea, placing corals in potential microplastic hot spots.
“We don’t know what consequences this [storage] might have for the coral organisms, [or for] reef stability and integrity,” Reichert says. It “might pose an additional threat to coral reefs worldwide.”
