Here comes nature's savage answer to plastic waste.
The high levels of plastic pollution in rivers, lakes, and oceans are possibly bringing a drastic change in the feeding habits of some microbes. The researchers believe that maybe the bacteria find it easier to break down plastic for food than to devour other complex organic matter in the lakes.
The blue points on the map highlight the 29 lakes sampled across Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Source: Further explaining these changes, senior researcher and Head of Ecosystems and Global Change Group at Cambridge University, Dr. Andrew Tanentzap, wrote, “It’s almost like the plastic pollution is getting the bacteria’s appetite going.
The researchers performed an interesting experiment to confirm their findings related to the better growth of bacteria in plastic-contaminated water. They purchased plastic bags and soaked them in water until they started discharging carbon compounds. They collected the water that contained the plastic-derived carbon complexes.
Then they poured water samples from each of the 29 lakes into separate glass bottles. In the next step, the researchers added small amounts of distilled water to half the glass bottles and mixed equal parts of plastic-bag water in the remaining lake water samples. Within 72 hours, the bacteria population doubled in the latter, proving the relationship between plastic waste and bacteria growth.
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