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Plastic in the deep sea: Virtually unaltered after a quarter of a century:
Plastic products are durable. On one hand this is a great advantage, but on the other hand, if the plastic enters the environment, this advantage turns into a problem. According to current knowledge, natural degradation, as with organic matter, does not take place. It can only be estimated, how long plastic debris actually remains in the environment. Corresponding long-term experiments are lacking.
This applies particularly to the deep sea that is only poorly explored itself. Plastic objects that are found by chance with the help of deep-sea robots or other underwater vehicles are difficult to date. However, during an expedition with the German research vessel SONNE in 2015, researchers from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen and the Kiel University were able to recover several pieces of waste from the seabed of the Eastern Pacific Ocean in a depth of more than 4000 meters. Conducting a little detective work allowed to constrain the age of deposition quite accurately. For the first time, this offered the opportunity to conduct a long-term study on plastic degradation in the deep sea. The study was published today in the international journal Scientific Reports.
[...] Overall, the study provides the first scientifically sound indication of the fate of plastic debris in the deep sea. "This study builds also an important basis for our new project HOTMIC, where we aim to trace the plastic waste entering the ocean from the continents to the large oceanic eddies and further to their final sink, the abyssal seafloor," says Dr. Haeckel.
Journal Reference:
S. Krause, M. Molari, E. V. Gorb, et al. Persistence of plastic debris and its colonization by bacterial communities after two decades on the abyssal seafloor [open], Scientific Reports (DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-66361-7)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 15 2020, @04:19AM (2 children)
I'm not really worried about the plastics anymore. Not that it isn't a problem, but I believe that nature has demonstrated it can find a way to break down plastics. I was always told it was impossible, but we're seeing microrganisms develop with enzymes that can break down the plastics.
At one point in history, nothing could break down cellulose in the world. That changed, and all the wood was added into the ecosystem. Faster than I would of thought possible, same is happening with plastic. It's not being treated as inert.
There's a really good chance that by the end of the century plastics could be largely biodegradable, and the oceans may actually exhaust their supplies of plastic. Funny enough, plastics might not be as viable in this future depending on the diversity and presence of bacteria and insects that treat it as a food source.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Monday June 15 2020, @06:28AM
And where is frojack, when we need him? Nailing plastic bags to the side of his shed, for the benefit of humanity! What a mensch!
(Score: 3, Touché) by FatPhil on Monday June 15 2020, @08:30PM
We need to bring back that hole in the ozone layer - a bit more UV will help rip apart those polymer bonds!
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