Ocean plastic endangers bacteria that create oxygen necessary for life

[zenkai]

Source

It's already been cast as an economic villain, to the tune of $2.5 trillion, disrupting "almost all marine ecosystem services" and suffocating every industry it touches.

Now, plastic pollution in oceans could actually be suffocating the planet – by harming the tiny microorganisms that are "thought to be responsible for up to 10 percent of ... total global oxygen production."

According to a new study in the scientific journal Communications Biology, the chemicals that leak from plastic waste floating around in the ocean may stop the bacteria known as Prochlorococcus from producing oxygen.


"We found that exposure to chemicals leaching from plastic pollution interfered with the growth, photosynthesis and oxygen production of Prochlorococcus, the ocean's most abundant photosynthetic bacteria," said the study's lead author and Macquarie University researcher, Dr. Sasha Tetu, in a statement.

It's estimated that there are 3 octillion Prochlorococcus living in the world's oceans. To get a sense of how enormous that is, there are roughly 7.5 billion people on the planet. That means there are 400 Prochlorococcus for every single person on Earth.

During the research, the scientists took fragments of grey plastic grocery bags and PVC matting and put them in artificial seawater for five days. Multiple strains of Prochlorococcus were then exposed to the seawater and the researchers found their growth patterns had changed and the amount of oxygen they produced had changed as well.

To make matters worse, one of the strains of bacteria stopped producing oxygen completely after 24 hours after being exposed to the chemicals from PVC.

"We show leachate exposure strongly impairs Prochlorococcus in vitro growth and photosynthetic capacity and results in genome-wide transcriptional changes," the study's abstract reads. "The strains showed distinct differences in the extent and timing of their response to each leachate."

Dr. Lisa Moore, a co-author on the paper, noted that these microorganisms "are critical to the marine food web," making it all the more important that their well-being is not an afterthought.

"These tiny microorganisms are critical to the marine food web, contribute to carbon cycling and are thought to be responsible for up to 10 percent of the total global oxygen production," Moore said, adding "[O]ne in every ten breaths of oxygen you breathe in is thanks to these little guys, yet almost nothing is known about how marine bacteria, such as Prochlorococcus respond to human pollutants."

A world awash in plastic

Despite several efforts of countries around the world to reduce or stop the use of plastic altogether, the amount of plastic in the world's oceans is increasing, and spreading across the planet.

It's been estimated that marine plastic pollution will outweigh fish by 2050. Estimates on economic damage have ranged from $13 billion per year to as high as the aforementioned $2.5 trillion. There have been several initiatives from municipalities, state and federal governments and corporations around the world to stop the spread, but Tetu states that the impact is going far beyond just impacting marine life.

The study put forth by Tetu and her team is the latest in a long line of research warning about the hazards of a world overcome with plastic.

In April, a study looking at the economic impact of the plastic pollution problem estimated that the $2.5 trillion figure, adding that it will have a negative impact on "almost all marine ecosystem services," including areas such as fisheries, recreation and heritage. The estimate did not take into account the impact on sectors of the global economy such as tourism, transport, fisheries and human health, the researchers wrote.


A separate study, published in Nature on April 16, is the first study "to confirm a significant increase in open ocean plastics in recent decades," going back nearly 60 years. Researchers found a plastic bag that had been snared on Ireland's coast since 1965, and is possibly first piece of plastic pollution ever found, according to the BBC.

That study was based off a 2015 investigation that estimated there were between 4.8 trillion and 12.7 trillion pieces of plastic entering the ocean every year.

"Our data shows that plastic pollution may have widespread ecosystem impacts beyond the known effects on macro-organisms, such as seabirds and turtles," Tetu added. "If we truly want to understand the full impact of plastic pollution in the marine environment and find ways to mitigate it, we need to consider its impact on key microbial groups, including photosynthetic microbes."

What should we do with countries that dump rivers of trash into the ocean? https://news.sky.com/story/just-10-r...ceans-11167581

[Techno-Druid]

What should we do with countries that dump rivers of trash into the ocean? https://news.sky.com/story/just-10-r...ceans-11167581

Work with their governments to curtail littering and enforce proper waste disposal would be preferable, although we ultimately need to abandon petroleum plastics.

[wunksta]

Lead by example by reducing our own waste and reliance on those products, developing cheap biodegradable alternatives, and developing technology that can remove waste from the oceans.

[GreenJesus]

There are also non-profit companies that have created new technologies and hired crews to clean the trash in our oceans. It's not like once it is in the ocean it is there forever.

For example:
https://www.theoceancleanup.com/

The ocean is big. Cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch using conventional methods - vessels and nets - would take thousands of years and tens of billions of dollars to complete. Our passive systems are estimated to remove half the Great Pacific Garbage patch in just five years, and at a fraction of the cost.

[Razzako]

Nuke them.

[GreenJesus]

Stop shipping junk to those countries and deal with it yourself? Stop buying products that are made on factories that pollute?

Not going to happen. Corporations win, governments are fully behind corporations. Buy more iPhones!

That is just an exaggerated excuse and propaganda for China and India. They are the ones buying/being paid to take SOME of our trash. They have the responsibility to either recycle it or dump it responsibly. If they can't then they should refuse to accept it from us. And what we send them is miniscule compared to what they produce and dump locally.

[therealstegblob]

Work with their governments to curtail littering and enforce proper waste disposal would be preferable, although we ultimately need to abandon petroleum plastics.

We are never going to abandon petroleum plastics, at least not entirely. Rather, a better solution is probably the invention of methods of cleaning it up or making it biodegradable, as are already under works.

[The Stormbringer]

Ignore the issue for the next thirty to fifty years until it starts really being a problem, then complain loudly that there are no quick and cheap solutions?

[Thekri]

There are also non-profit companies that have created new technologies and hired crews to clean the trash in our oceans. It's not like once it is in the ocean it is there forever.

For example:
https://www.theoceancleanup.com/

I love this effort (It has had some major setbacks, but they are still trying hard), but it doesn't solve the problem of all this waste going into the ocean in the first place. Stopping it from getting in the ocean in the first place is always going to be better.

Personally, I want to see a major effort to force companies into transitioning into biodegradable alternatives. These aren't popular with companies because inventory that rots is always worse then inventory that lasts forever, but we need to get there. Moving away from plastic straws and plastic bags are great first steps for this, but we need to go a lot further. We use really stupid amounts of packaging for everything.

[GreenJesus]

I love this effort (It has had some major setbacks, but they are still trying hard), but it doesn't solve the problem of all this waste going into the ocean in the first place. Stopping it from getting in the ocean in the first place is always going to be better.

Personally, I want to see a major effort to force companies into transitioning into biodegradable alternatives. These aren't popular with companies because inventory that rots is always worse then inventory that lasts forever, but we need to get there. Moving away from plastic straws and plastic bags are great first steps for this, but we need to go a lot further. We use really stupid amounts of packaging for everything.

With more effective supply chains and transportation hubs, having excess inventory won't be as important. Stores won't need to have huge inventories, because the supply chain is so fast and effective there is no point. Also, it's much better to have a faster inventory turnover. With better data they can better predict demand and they can order what they actually need. Amazon is revolutionizing the supply chain of retailers as well as e-commerce. If companies don't need to hold inventory as long and products get to the shelves faster then they can also use less preservatives and have fresher food as well.

Regarding plastic, the school I went to in Hawaii had biodegradable corn based utensils that worked fine.

[Thekri]

With more effective supply chains and transportation hubs, having excess inventory won't be as important. Stores won't need to have huge inventories, because the supply chain is so fast there is no point. Amazon is revolutionizing the supply chain of retailers as well as e-commerce. If companies don't need to hold inventory as long and products get to the shelves faster then they can also use less preservatives as well.

Agreed, but I am in favor of government regulations to push them along. When possible I prefer to keep this at the local government levels rather then federal, but I view plastic pollution as something as an existential crisis. It has gotten really bad in a very short period of time, and it is going to take a lot long to reverse it. I am in favor of some pretty drastic measures to deal with it.

To clarify I absolutely support efforts that clean plastic, like the one you posted earlier, but it isn't enough. The ecological damage can spiral out of control really fast. The importance of stuff like oceanic bacteria cannot really be overstated, the ripple effects are just staggering.

[GreenJesus]

Agreed, but I am in favor of government regulations to push them along. When possible I prefer to keep this at the local government levels rather then federal, but I view plastic pollution as something as an existential crisis. It has gotten really bad in a very short period of time, and it is going to take a lot long to reverse it. I am in favor of some pretty drastic measures to deal with it.

To clarify I absolutely support efforts that clean plastic, like the one you posted earlier, but it isn't enough. The ecological damage can spiral out of control really fast. The importance of stuff like oceanic bacteria cannot really be overstated, the ripple effects are just staggering.

There does have to be something done. It's especially absurd how much plastic is generated for Halloween candy bags for example. There is the big bag that holds all the candies. Then each candy is bite sized with its own bag. It's absurd.

[Thekri]

There does have to be something done. It's especially absurd how much plastic is generated for Halloween candy bags for example. There is the big bag that holds all the candies. Then each candy is bite sized with its own bag. It's absurd.

Exactly, and that is one of those problems that capitalism isn't going to correct in time. Because it is incredibly cheap to wrap candies that way, and every alternative would either be more expensive or more messy, the companies will keep cranking it out. Because the candy company has no liability for the trash generated by their product. This is the perfect example why some government regulations are absolutely needed.

[Techno-Druid]

We are never going to abandon petroleum plastics, at least not entirely. Rather, a better solution is probably the invention of methods of cleaning it up or making it biodegradable, as are already under works.

Petroleum plastics are not biodegradable by anything other than some micro-organisms. I don't think we should abandoned plastics altogether, but should try to find an alternative in bioplastics.

[PC2]

Oxygen isn't a pressing issue even if all of the producers died. The rate at which Oxygen is made into CO2 is extremely slow.

[Thekri]

Oxygen isn't a pressing issue even if all of the producers died. The rate at which Oxygen is made into CO2 is extremely slow.

Oxygen is actually fairly important.

I just thought you should know that.

[Ghostpanther]

Will take a world wide effort to make a lot of differences. For one, we should be pushing for paper grocery bags, plates, cups, milk containers, etc. as one small step for the consumers. Paper can be recycled easily and is renewable from nature. But a total ban on plastics is not realistic and will never happen. But we should know the worse plastic polluters come from 2 countries. China and India. So they need to be dealt with.

[PC2]

Oxygen is actually fairly important.

I just thought you should know that.

Yes but my geuss is that it would take multiple millennium before the atmosphere reached a toxic ratio. Given the scientific and technological progress of the last century it would be very likely that a solution is found. Either way civilization is expanding and taking over the environment so there's no way to preserve the ecosystem as it was pre-industrial revolution. "Spaceship Earth" has always been a misunderstanding that was based on the idea that Earth as it was, was friendly to human life. Which is completely false, the Earth as it was before the industrial revolution would be better described as a death trap.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

China and India won't give a fuck so we are pretty much doomed. It is possible we could in the short term work with India but China pretty much has zero fucks given about anything of the sort.

[therealstegblob]

Petroleum plastics are not biodegradable by anything other than some micro-organisms.

...Hence "making ways to make it biodegradable". As in, altering its chemical makeup in some way as to not disrupt its normal structure but make it biodegradable, or by literally creating microbes that are capable of degrading it. As is already under development.