"The team tracked individual plankton them from birth to death and exposed them to various concentrations of sodium chloride (rock salt) and calcium chloride."
"De-icing road salts — even those marketed as environmentally friendly — may harm important freshwater plankton, a new analysis indicates. The study, published in Science of the Total Environment, suggests that some species of zooplankton — a critical food source for freshwater fish — don’t adapt to pollution from road salts from generation to generation.
Researchers studied Daphnia pulex, a zooplankton also known as the common water flea. The tiny organisms are found in freshwater ecosystems, including those polluted by salts used to de-ice roads.
The team studied 180 individual plankton, tracking them from birth to death and exposing them to various concentrations of sodium chloride (rock salt) and calcium chloride, a pricier de-icer touted as more environmentally friendly than other road salts. The researchers put the plankton in three categories: those whose ancestors had been exposed to sodium chloride, those whose ancestors were exposed to calcium chloride and those with no generational exposure."
Erin Blakemore reports for the Washington Post August 17, 2024.
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