{"id":238535,"date":"2023-04-18T20:31:42","date_gmt":"2023-04-18T15:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=238535"},"modified":"2023-04-19T13:30:49","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T08:00:49","slug":"how-coastal-species-are-living-on-plastic-debris-in-the-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/how-coastal-species-are-living-on-plastic-debris-in-the-ocean\/","title":{"rendered":"How coastal species are living on plastic debris in the ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cHow coastal species are living on plastic debris in the ocean\u201d <\/strong>published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d <\/strong>on 18th April 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS3- Environment<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>– Issues related to marine life and marine pollution<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>– Recently, a study published by researchers from Canada, the Netherlands, and the U.S. have reported that coastal lifeforms have colonised plastic items in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.<\/p>\n

What are some facts about the Anthropocene epoch?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

This is the name some scientists have proposed for a new period in history.<\/strong> It is characterized by the influence of Homo sapiens<\/strong> on the planet\u2019s geology and ecosystems. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Scientists are still not clear when this epoch really began.<\/strong> Some candidates include the first nuclear weapon test and rapid industrialisation after the Second World War.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some link it with the creation of plastic trash<\/strong> which is abundant in our urban refuse, rivers, and forests.<\/p>\n

What are some facts about the great pacific garbage patch?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There are some water currents in the ocean that form loops. These are called gyres. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The North Pacific Subtropical Gyre <\/strong>is located just north of the equator in the Pacific Ocean. It consists of the Kuroshio, North Pacific, California, and North Equatorial currents <\/strong>and moves in a clockwise direction.<\/p>\n

These currents flow adjacent to 51 Pacific Rim countries.<\/strong> Any trash that enters one of these currents, from any of these countries, could become part of the gyre.<\/p>\n

Inside this gyre lies a long east-west strip<\/strong>. Here, some of the debris in these currents has collected over the years. The eastern part of this is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch<\/strong>. It is estimated to be 1.6 million sq. km big and more than 50 years old.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It contains an estimated 45,000-1,29,000 metric tonnes of plastic<\/strong>. It is predominantly in the form of microplastics.<\/strong> The more visible objects that haven\u2019t yet broken down into smaller particles accounted for 92% of the plastics in 2018.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What are the findings of the study?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The tsunami off the Japanese coast in 2011<\/strong> contributed to the debris in this garbage patch. Researchers had found debris on the West coast of North America containing live life forms originally found in Japan.<\/p>\n

From November 2018 to January 2019, researchers collected 105 pieces of plastic debris from the eastern part of the NPSG. Based on the study, 98% of the debris <\/em>items had invertebrate organisms. <\/strong><\/p>\n

They also found that pelagic species (species of the open ocean) <\/strong>were present on 94.3% of them and coastal species<\/strong> on 70.5%.<\/p>\n

They found organisms belonging to 46 taxa<\/strong>. While 37 of them were coastal, the rest were pelagic. Among both coastal and pelagic organisms,<\/strong> crustaceans<\/strong> were the most common.<\/p>\n

The coastal species were most commonly found on fishing nets whereas the pelagic species on crates.<\/p>\n

Nearly all taxa were of Northwest Pacific origin<\/strong>, including Japan. Most debris items (85.7%) did not have identifiable markings<\/strong> linked to origin, such as manufacture locations or company\/brand names.<\/p>\n

The researchers also found that 68% of the coastal taxa and 33% of the pelagic taxa reproduced asexually<\/strong>. There was evidence of sexual reproduction<\/strong> among the hydroids and the crustaceans.<\/p>\n

They reported a strong positive correlation between reproduction and mobility.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What is the relevance of the findings of the study?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The introduction of species on plastic items has given rise to a new kind of standing coastal community <\/strong>in the open ocean. Researchers have named it the neopelagic community.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The neopelagic community<\/strong> is not misplaced from other areas of the oceans but lives on plastic items in the garbage patch, including reproducing there.<\/p>\n

As per another study polyethylene films<\/strong> had chemically bonded with rocks in China. This is reminiscent of the \u201canthropoquinas\u201d of Brazil <\/strong>(sedimentary rocks embedded with plastic earrings) and the \u201cplastiglomerates\u201d of Hawaii <\/strong>(beach sediment + organic debris + basaltic lava + melted plastic).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cHow coastal species are living on plastic debris in the ocean\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 18th April 2023. Syllabus: GS3- Environment Relevance– Issues related to marine life and marine pollution News– Recently, a study published by researchers from Canada, the Netherlands, and the U.S. have reported… Continue reading How coastal species are living on plastic debris in the ocean<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,426,4208,398,10498],"class_list":["post-238535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-marine-pollution","tag-microplastic-pollution","tag-plastic-pollution","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238535\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}