Thoughtless habits and practices - a bottle dropped here, a bag thrown there - are creating garbage dumps in the world’s oceans. The flotilla of debris moves with the currents and harms fish and marine mammals that either ingest or get entangled in it. But for some organisms, it's home.
Microbe Colonies Thrive on Ocean Plastic Debris
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Plastic marine debris pieces picked from net contents. (Credit: E. Zettler, SEA Education Association)
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Students and scientists work in the shipboard laboratory. (Credit: E. Zettler, SEA Education Association)
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SEA student Allison Adams sorts plastic under a microscope. (Credit: E. Zettler, SEA Education Association)
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An experiment shows biofilm of micro-organisms that develop after only a couple of weeks in the open ocean. (Credit: Lily Patterson & Helena Oldenbourg)
