Corals in Australia's Great Barrier Reef Eat Plastic

It turns out that corals are making use of the plastic in our oceans-sort of. Scientists have found that corals commonly found on the Great Barrier Reef are actually eating plastic.

In this case, the corals are consuming microplastics, which are tiny fragments of plastic in the environment that are a widespread contaminant in marine ecosystems, particularly in inshore coral reefs. Despite the proliferation of microplastics, though, their impact on marine ecosystems is poorly understood.

"Corals are non-selective feeders and our results show that they can consume microplastics when the plastics are present in seawater," said Mia Hoogenboom, one of the researchers, in a news release. "If microplastic pollution increases on the Great Barrier Reef, corals could be negatively affected as their tiny stomach-cavities become full of indigestible plastic."

The researchers collected corals from the Great Barrier Reef and placed them into plastic contaminated water. After two nights, the scientists found that the corals had eaten the plastic. In fact, it looked as if the corals ate plastic at rates only slightly lower than their normal rate of feeding on marine plankton.

The plastics were found deep inside coral polyps, wrapped in digestive tissue. It's possible that the plastic particles may impede the corals' ability to digest its normal food. However, future studies need to be conducted before any conclusions are made.

Currently, the researchers hope to determine the impact the plastic has on coral physiology and health, as well as its impact on marine organisms. They plan to see whether fish on coral reefs also eat plastics and whether this influences their growth and survival.

The findings are published in the journal Marine Biology.

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