Researchers have made a disturbing discovery in the Pacific: Certain sea creatures are behaving unusually. What’s behind it.
US researchers have Pacific between Hawaii and California discovered invertebrates that are swimming plastic waste colonize in the water. They examined samples from the gigantic island of garbage known as the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”. The discovered 37 species of anemone and shellfish “now persist in the open sea as an integral part of a neopelagic (new marine) community sustained by the vast and expanding sea of plastic waste,” the report said Studypublished in the journal “Nature Ecology and Evolution”.
More than two-thirds of the samples examined contained coastal species, including crustaceans, sea anemones and moss-like creatures called bryozoans. The Animals thousands of miles from their original homeland. They originate from coastal areas in Japan or other countries further afield and fed on the slime of bacteria and algae that forms on the plastic waste in the open sea. also read: Living plastic-free: Self-experiment comes up against these hurdles
The study results would indicate that the plastic pollution in the sea allows the emergence of new floating ecosystems of species that would not normally be able to survive in the open sea. Now it is necessary to investigate to what extent the animals fit into the existing food chains on the open sea. According to the study’s lead author, Linsey Haram, the discovered coastal species lived on the same plastics as the marine species and may have competed there for food. also read: Alternative to the plastic bag: Are cloth bags sustainable?
Garbage carpet in the Pacific: Four times the size of Germany
The Garbage carpet in the Pacific covers an area of 1.6 million square kilometers – that is about 4 times the size of Germany. A 2017 published in the journal Science Advances Study calculated that by 2050, twelve billion tons of plastic waste will end up in landfills or in the Environment will be if current production and waste disposal trends continue. At their meeting in Japan, the energy and environment ministers of the G7 states formulated the goal of developing an “international legally binding instrument against plastic pollution” by the end of 2024. (oli/dpa)
More articles from this category can be found here: Life
