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Millimeter-sized marine plastics: a new pelagic habitat for microorganisms and invertebrates
Citation
Reisser, J and Shaw, J and Hallegraeff, G and Proietti, M and Barnes, DKA and Thums, M and Wilcox, C and Hardesty, BD and Pattiaratchi, C, Millimeter-sized marine plastics: a new pelagic habitat for microorganisms and invertebrates, PLoS One, 9, (6) Article e100289. ISSN 1932-6203 (2014) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2014 The Authors-This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, (CC BY 4.0 International) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
DOI: doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0100289
Abstract
Millimeter-sized plastics are abundant in most marine surface waters, and known to carry fouling organisms that potentially
play key roles in the fate and ecological impacts of plastic pollution. In this study we used scanning electron microscopy to
characterize biodiversity of organisms on the surface of 68 small floating plastics (length range = 1.7–24.3 mm,
median = 3.2 mm) from Australia-wide coastal and oceanic, tropical to temperate sample collections. Diatoms were the
most diverse group of plastic colonizers, represented by 14 genera. We also recorded ‘epiplastic’ coccolithophores (7
genera), bryozoans, barnacles (Lepas spp.), a dinoflagellate (Ceratium), an isopod (Asellota), a marine worm, marine insect
eggs (Halobates sp.), as well as rounded, elongated, and spiral cells putatively identified as bacteria, cyanobacteria, and
fungi. Furthermore, we observed a variety of plastic surface microtextures, including pits and grooves conforming to the
shape of microorganisms, suggesting that biota may play an important role in plastic degradation. This study highlights
how anthropogenic millimeter-sized polymers have created a new pelagic habitat for microorganisms and invertebrates.
The ecological ramifications of this phenomenon for marine organism dispersal, ocean productivity, and biotransfer of
plastic-associated pollutants, remains to be elucidated.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | marine plastics |
| Research Division: | Biological Sciences |
| Research Group: | Plant Biology |
| Research Field: | Phycology (incl. Marine Grasses) |
| Objective Division: | Animal Production and Animal Primary Products |
| Objective Group: | Fisheries - Aquaculture |
| Objective Field: | Fisheries - Aquaculture not elsewhere classified |
| UTAS Author: | Hallegraeff, G (Professor Gustaaf Hallegraeff) |
| ID Code: | 92492 |
| Year Published: | 2014 |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 66 |
| Deposited By: | IMAS Research and Education Centre |
| Deposited On: | 2014-06-19 |
| Last Modified: | 2017-11-20 |
| Downloads: | 519 View Download Statistics |
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