Sachit Murali
Published: October 22nd, 2014
Source: American Geophysical Union
Links: http://news.agu.org/press-release/uncovering-the-secret-world-of-the-plastisphere/
Summary:
Plastics are useful in many aspects because its durable, cheap and flexible. Plastics have now turned into a plastic communities because of all the plastic polluted the ocean gets filled with plastic every year. Its ability to last long allows it to end up in places it should not be in. Ocean being a good example of where plastic usually ends up. It is known that most organisms are severely affected by plastics but some organisms thrive in plastic debris in the ocean. Algae are a great example of an organism thriving in plastic debris because of their ability to transform plastic into "rich microbial reefs". An experiment was conducted by marine biologist testing to see how the algae how had the algae transformed the plastic into food and shelter. To see this he went deep into the ocean and found floating invertebrate some microbial biofilm. Later was found to be made from plastic and see that these microbes thrived from the plastic.
Connection:
This is related to what we talked in class because this shows how plastics can negatively and positively effect our ecosystem. The plastic as we all know can kill off major consumers in our ecosystem. Luckily though our producers are not affected by these plastics and this can really boost many ecosystems. Because the producers can really help many of the consumers. Also since the chain is messed up by the consumers being affected, the producers being well off can help the primary consumers in the food chain. Also many symbiotic relationships occur because of the plastic. The most direct symbiotic relationship is the microbes affecting animals. For example a species called vibrio gives out chorea to the disease to many animals. This is definitely an example of parasitism because the bacteria get a place stay while hurting the bodies of the animals.
Have we done anything to harness the algae's abilities and make it more effective at transforming plastic? If so, what?
ReplyDeleteWe have not done anything to harness the algae's ability but the algae is able to create energy on its own due to something in the algae called the algal biofuel using natural resources around the algae to create energy.
DeleteI can see how algae can transform the plastic into shelter, but how exactly does it transform it into food? Can it somehow break down the substances in the plastic?
ReplyDeleteAlgae is a decomposer so its able to transform dead objects into nutrients. Like that the algae is able to transform some of these plastics into nutrients for them to eat.
DeleteIf the plastic was removed from the oceans, what organisms will thrive, and how will the plastic not being in the oceans affect algae?
ReplyDeletePlastics harm most living organisms. If the plastics were removed from the ocean most organisms would thrive but the algae would not benefit from this and it will be harder for them to create energy.
Delete