Thanks to mankind littering the marine environment with waste plastic, a new ecosystem has evolved at sea.
Named the “plastisphere”, the synthetic ecosystem is providing a home for a variety of living creatures, from crabs hitching a ride to plastic-eating bacteria.
With some one million plastic bottles being dumped in the sea every minute, there’s no shortage of waste for the plastisphere to build with.
While other ecosystems have taken millions of years to evolve, the plastisphere has taken just decades.
Read more in Welcome to the ‘plastisphere’: the synthetic ecosystem evolving at sea.
