Even a cave that's been closed to the public for three decades can't escape the reach of microplastic particles.
The locale selected by the researchers is Cliff Cave, located in Missouri, and while it has been closed to the public since 1993, it is located near a residential area. As such, it's not totally sequestered from civilization, but serves as a good case study on how human settlements impact nearby ecosystems.
The researchers found that microplastics were building up in their highest concentrations at the mouth of the cave, and then being pushed further in by water that flooded into it. Moreover, they determined that microplastics were 100 times more concentrated in the cave's sediment than in the water. "99 percent of the microplastic debris we found in the cave was stored in the sediment; only a very small fraction of the plastic was in the water," Hasenmueller said.
This suggests that water is depositing the microplastics into the sediment, where it gets stored long term — decades or more — even after the water recedes, the researchers concluded, adding that airborne particles could also be settling into the cave bed.Ominously, Hasenmueller says that these plastic particles contaminating caves could seep into groundwater, which humans use to drink. Beyond that, it also threatens to disrupt the habitats of bats and amphibians that inhabit the caves.
Given how ubiquitous plastics are, it'll be a difficult trend to reverse. One solution according to Hasenmueller is that society as a whole should ditch synthetic clothing.More on microplastics:
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