Zooplankton grazing of microplastic can accelerate global loss of ocean oxygen

Global warming has driven a loss of dissolved oxygen in the ocean in recent decades. We demonstrate the potential for an additional anthropogenic driver of deoxygenation, in which zooplankton consumption of microplastic reduces the grazing on primary producers. In regions where primary production is not limited by macronutrient availability, the reduction of grazing pressure on primary producers causes export production to increase. Consequently, organic particle remineralisation in these regions increases. Employing a comprehensive Earth system model of intermediate complexity, we estimate this additional remineralisation could decrease water column oxygen inventory by as much as 10% in the North Pacific and accelerate global oxygen inventory loss by an extra 0.2-0.5% relative to 1960 values by the year 2020. Although significant uncertainty accompanies these estimates, the potential for physical pollution to have a globally significant biogeochemical signal that exacerbates the consequences of climate warming is a novel feedback not yet considered in climate research. Microplastic pollution is a major threat to marine food webs, but the wider ranging impacts on global ocean biogeochemistry are poorly understood. Here the authors use an Earth system model to determine that zooplankton grazing on microplastics could exacerbate trends in ocean oxygen loss.

Automated summary

Global warming has led to a loss of dissolved oxygen in the ocean, while zooplankton consuming microplastics reduces competition for food among primary producers, increasing remineralization of organic particles. The Earth system model estimates that this additional remineralization could decrease water column oxygen inventory in the North Pacific and accelerate global oxygen loss. The potential for physical pollution to exacerbate the consequences of climate warming is a novel feedback that has not been fully explored.