The combined environmental threat of plastic pollution and ocean acidification are having significant impacts on species living in our oceans, according to new research.
The combined environmental threat of plastic pollution and ocean acidification are having significant impacts on species living in our oceans, according to new research.
An international team of scientists found that after three weeks of being submerged in the ocean, the bacterial diversity on plastic bottles was twice as great as on samples collected from the surrounding seawater.
However, in areas of elevated carbon dioxide, a large number of taxonomic groups – including bacteria that play an important role in carbon cycling – were negatively impacted.
Conversely, other species – including those that have previously been shown to thrive in areas of high ocean plastics and to potentially cause disease on coral reefs – were enriched by it.
Read more at: University of Plymouth
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