A team of researchers at Cambridge University has detected the presence of a naturally growing plastic-eating bacteria species in 29 European lakes.
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 observed that the changes in eating habits were more prominent in lakes with more bacterial species. So the breakdown of plastic waste was faster and better in the lakes with a greater diversity of bacterial species. “This suggests that plastic pollution stimulates the whole food web in lakes because more bacteria means more food for the bigger organisms like ducks and fish,” said Professor Tanentzap.
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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