Plastic Changes the Temperature of Sandy Beaches
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“In 2019, researchers took the temperature of the sand of the beaches of Henderson Island (and Cocos, another island) at different places and times every day. It turned out that the plastic was causing the maximum temperature of the top layer to be 2.45 degrees Celsius higher than normal during the day and an extra 1.5 degrees cooler at night. This has consequences for animals, especially for cold-blooded animals that cannot regulate their own body temperature, and for the meiofauna which are organisms that live in the sand.
This is not a previously described phenomenon that is caused by plastic pollution. The findings are in the Journal of Hazardous Materials. Also read this summary and this interview with one of the researchers.”
