It is true that after all these years of pollution and destruction of the environment, our society is slowly becoming aware of the impact of their actions towards the very planet they are living on. We looked into issues such as logging, species conservations, water contamination and air pollutants, but there were times we forgot about the ocean. Water contamination that we focused so much on is those near our life – the river, drain and our drinking water. But have you realized oceans and seas are the ones that divide our land, and yet connect us? It covers 70% of the Earth and its vastness has always become an excuse for us not to explore it.
Now that is what the team of scientists consisted of Erik Zettler (Sea Education Association), Tracy Mincer (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) and Linda Amaral-Zettler ( Marine Biological Laboratory) has been working on.
They took samples from the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre, samples that are called the plastic marine debris (PMD). These are accumulation of debris (obviously made by human) travelling across different continents and gathered in that area due to water current.
What the team found inside is spectacular.
They found an ecosystem among these plastics, with microorganisms that are so different from the sea area around them. They called that ‘plastiphere’. According to the study, it is suggested these long-lasting plastics provided a better surface area for some of the microbes to cling on, just like how biofilm functions. In within, they observed micro-creaks on these plastics that are available on PMDs of different materials, suggesting that this new type of environment may have cultured a new batch of microbes that are capable of degrading plastics. More studies will be done on these.
This might be exciting news for microbes’ discovery, but the team’s finding did not stop there.
When the PMD has the resource to flourish an ecosystem of unique microbes, it means it could be resourceful for some harmful microbes as well. The team found on their samples, various types of microorganisms including those from genus Vibrio. If you are familiar with microbiology, the infamous cholera is in this genus.
The PMD provided a platform that is so permanent that cholera which usually can’t survive long in sea could survive on it. With its longer existence on sea and water current, it could be possible that this could be a method for harmful bacteria to spread across the sea, into continents and countries.
It is interesting in the sense that this piece of study brought an excitement of new findings of environment and yet worrying with its impact on the future of mankind.
References:
Zettler, E. R., Mincer, T. J., Amaral-Zettler, L. A.. Life in “Plastisphere“ : Microbial Communites on Plastic Marines Debris. Environ. Sci. Technol. 7 June 2013. doi: 10.1021/es401288x
Marshall, M.. Plastisphere microbes goes to sea on flotsam fragments. New Scientist. 2 Jul 2013.
Agencies. Welcome to the ‘Plastisphere’: new eco-system ‘living on ocean’s rubbish heap. The Telegraph. 19 Jul 2013.
Hoare, P.. The sea is invisible to us – so it’s become our trash heap. The Guardian. 17 Jul 2013.
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