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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Plastic fouls an Antarctic island’s wee beasts

Springtails, some of the most isolated animals on Earth, harbour polystyrene foam in their guts.
AColoured scanning electron micrograph of a six-legged creature with antennae and a long body.

Antarctic springtails (pictured), one of the dominant land animals on the continent, eat algae and lichens — and, unwittingly, bits of plastic attached to their food. Credit: British Antarctic Survey/SPL

Plastic has found its way into a tiny animal in one of the most remote spots on the planet — an invasion that could degrade a food web already under threat from climate change.

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Nature 583, 11 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01890-9

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