In March 2023, Australian petrels became the first animals known to suffer fibrosis caused by these materials. For 10 points each:
[10m] Name these ubiquitous water pollutants. These organic particles are shorter than five millimeters long and are shed from nylon or polyester textiles.
ANSWER: microplastics [or plastic microbeads; or microfibers; prompt on plastics]
[10e] Plasticosis in birds worries scientists who study the baleen type of these marine mammals, which are also at extreme risk due to plastic pollution.
ANSWER: baleen whales
[10h] Thankfully, microplastics move slower between trophic levels than this textbook example of a bioaccumulating organic toxin. This one-carbon compound marched straight up the food chain from plankton to shellfish to tuna to humans in the 1956 outbreak of Minamata disease.
ANSWER: methylmercury [or CH3Hg+; reject “mercury”]
<Ganon Evans, Science - Biology> ~20530~ <Editor: Adam Silverman>