Microplastic-eating plankton may be worsening crisis in oceans, say scientists

Rotifers could be accelerating risk by splitting particles into thousands of potentially more dangerous nanoplastics

A type of zooplankton found in marine and fresh water can ingest and break down microplastics, scientists have discovered. But rather than providing a solution to the threat plastics pose to aquatic life, the tiny creatures known as rotifers could be accelerating the risk by splitting the particles into thousands of smaller and potentially more dangerous nanoplastics.

Each rotifer, named from the Latin for wheel-bearer" owing to the whirling wheel of cilia around their mouths, can create between 348,000 and 366,000 nanoplastics - particles smaller than one micrometre - each day.