Plastisphere microbes go to sea on flotsam fragments bit.ly/1cM2MMU - (Image: Erik Zettler/Sea Education Association) We dump huge amounts of plastic waste into the ocean every year, much of it ending up as microplastic – fragments less than 5 millimetres across. Famously, much of it has gathered in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and it may harm animals that inadvertently swallow it. Now, it appears that microplastic is hosting life as well as hurting it, created a new niche in the vast oceans. The tiny fragments in the Atlantic Ocean have been colonised by microbes not found in open water, a community dubbed the "plastisphere". Linda Amaral-Zettler of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and colleagues collected microplastic from the north Atlantic and examined it with scanning electron microscopy and gene-sequencing techniques. They found a diverse community of bacteria quite different from those found in plastic-free water. Some of the bacteria could break down hydrocarbons (the building blocks of plastics), and the plastic fragments were often pitted. Amaral-Zettler says the bacteria may be slowly eating them away. On the flipside, one of the samples was dominated by Vibrio bacteria – the genus that causes cholera. Amaral-Zettler says the plastic could raft these dangerous bacteria around the world. Microbes are not the only organisms to adopt the plastic lifestyle. Pacific water striders have taken to laying their eggs on bits of plastic, and have flourished as a result. Journal reference: Environmental Science & Technology, DOI: 10.1021/es401288x If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to. Have your say Only subscribers may leave comments on this article. Please log in. Only personal subscribers may leave comments on this article Subscribe now to comment. All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us. If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support. - #science #sciencenews #sciencearticle #article
Posted on: Tue, 02 Jul 2013 12:33:59 +0000
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