14 DAY TRIAL // Remember when I said that ocean floors worldwide were covered in plastic debris and all sorts of other kind of trash? Turns out microbes really like the plastic bottles and empty containers that we keep throwing into our oceans.
In fact, they like them so much that they have decided to turn them into their home.
A new study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology says that there is a new ecological habitat forming in oceans across the globe.
It is made up of numerous microbe species and the plastic debris they inhabit, WHOI explains.
The novel ecological habitat is yet to receive a proper name, which is why researchers are referring to it as the “plastisphere.”
“The organisms inhabiting the plastisphere were different from those in surrounding seawater, indicating that plastic debris acts as artificial ‘microbial reefs.’ They supply a place that selects for and supports distinct microbes to settle and succeed,” researcher Tracy Mincer explained.
Specialists are now trying to figure out how the formation of this new ecological habitat will influence marine environments and the creatures populating them.
