Plastisphere
Plastic debris suspended in water and organisms which live in it / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The plastisphere consists of ecosystems that have evolved to live in human-made plastic environments. All plastic accumulated in marine ecosystems serves as a habitat for various types of microorganisms, with the most notable contaminant being microplastics.[1][2] There are an estimate of about 51 trillion microplastics floating in the oceans.[3] Relating to the plastisphere, over 1,000 different species of microbes are able to inhabit just one of these 5mm pieces of plastic.[4]
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Plastic pollution acts as a more durable "ship" than biodegradable material for carrying the organisms over long distances.[5][6] This long-distance transportation can move microbes to different ecosystems and potentially introduce invasive species[1] as well as harmful algae.[7] The microorganisms found on the plastic debris comprise an entire ecosystem of autotrophs, heterotrophs and symbionts.[8] The microbial species found within plastisphere differ from other floating materials that naturally occur (i.e., feathers and algae) due to plastic's unique chemical nature and slow speed of biodegradation. In addition to microbes, insects have come to flourish in areas of the ocean that were previously uninhabitable. The sea skater, for example, has been able to reproduce on the hard surface provided by the floating plastic.[9]