12/15/2023 0 Comments Linda beach tot lot![]() Microbes are not a solution for the plastic problem either. ‘It could also be the case that the bacteria use plastic as a sort of raw material, although I do not believe they actually eat the intact polymer very efficiently. What attracts them to settle there? Together with my colleagues and students, I am trying to discover what the interaction is between plastic and microorganisms.’ Plastic transport And so it is even more interesting that bacteria and algae inhabit the plastic. These locations are effectively deserts in the oceans. However, our oceans definitely contain an awful lot of plastic! The ocean water at those locations is very poor in nutrients, and not much life is found there either. That soup is certainly not a thick, substantial soup, let alone a carpet of waste. It collects in large rotating swirls that are hundreds of kilometres in diameter. ‘The waste in the ocean is sometimes referred to as the “plastic soup”. Just like the thin layer of life on the outside of the earth, which is called the biosphere, I see the layer of life on a piece of plastic as the plastisphere.’ Deserts in the ocean They have mainly seen an opportunity in that plastic a surface to attach to. ![]() If you examine such a piece of plastic from the beach carefully, then you can sometimes see that it is entirely covered by a layer of bacteria, algae and other living organisms. You can see that when you walk along the high-water mark. An increasing amount of plastic waste is floating in the seas and ocean. ![]() ‘Plastic probably has a far larger influence on our life than we think. Marine microbiologist professor Linda Amaral-Zettler is fascinated by plastic, or rather: by the life that attaches to plastic. ![]()
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