![]() And if you can spread, you can invade,” says Linda Amaral-Zettler, a marine microbiologist at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, who was not involved in the new study. “If you can reproduce, then you can spread. And the plastic in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch doesn’t necessarily stay there but can instead wash up on foreign beaches, where transplanted species might take root. For instance, they found insectlike arthropods tending to clutches of eggs and anemones sprouting little clones of themselves-indicators that suggest the relocations aided by plastic aren’t necessarily temporary. Haram and her colleagues found signs that these coastal species were reproducing. “We’re essentially creating new communities in the open ocean.”Īnd these unnatural communities may come at a cost for traditional open-ocean residents that are used to living on natural debris, she adds, because coastal creatures could be competing for space and food or could even be eating their neighbors. “What’s new, the ‘neo’ part of that, is that we now-likely because of plastics-are seeing coastal species and these native pelagic species together, interacting quite frequently on debris,” Haram says. Plastic isn’t just carrying coastal species out to sea it’s also creating unnatural neighborhoods that the researchers call “neopelagic communities.” But all told, about 70 percent of the debris the researchers analyzed carried at least one species usually found in coastal waters-a much higher tally than Haram and her colleagues expected going into the work, she says.Īnd as they looked closer, the scientists found that some two thirds of the debris pieces were home to coastal and open-ocean species living side by side. Nearly all the debris hosted pelagic, or open-ocean, species-which makes sense considering that weathering on much of the plastic suggested it had spent several years at sea. Haram, who was a research associate with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center during the study, specializes in marine ecology. “I just remember the first time Jim and I pulled out a piece of plastic and saw the level of coastal species present, we were just blown away,” says Linsey Haram, lead author of the study. These coastal species included “moss animals” or bryozoans, jellyfish, sponges, worms and other organisms. Many of these animals were species that are more commonly found near coastlines of the western Pacific. The scientists identified 484 invertebrates from a surprising range of species on the plastic. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.įor the new study, researchers identified species living on just more than 100 pieces of plastic that were fished out of the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch-a region in the northern Pacific Ocean where currents converge to deposit an estimated 79,000 metric tons of plastic debris. If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. “It’s a very, very particular community that we are disturbing now at a massive scale.” On supporting science journalism “It’s probably one of the least-known environments, the sea surface,” says Martin Thiel, a marine biologist at Catholic University of the North in Chile, who was not involved in the new research. ![]() Second, some of these species are reproducing despite the alien environment. ![]() First, it finds that plastic is providing a home for coastal species to thrive in the open ocean thousands of miles from shore. But new research published on April 17 in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution adds two details that could be concerning for existing ecosystems. Animals have even crossed the Pacific Ocean on these makeshift rafts after a devastating tsunami struck Japan in 2011. ![]() Scientists have long known that critters such as worms, crustaceans and mollusks could make their home on plastic debris. Plastics floating in a massive “garbage patch” in the Pacific Ocean are home to strange new mixes of coastal and marine species that might increase the odds of biological invasions wreaking havoc on nearby ecosystems. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |