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How will marine plastic pollution affect bacterial primary producers?
Summary
Researchers highlight findings from their earlier study showing that chemicals leaching from common plastics harm Prochlorococcus — marine bacteria responsible for a significant portion of Earth's oxygen production. They outline key open questions about how plastic pollution affects these tiny but essential ocean microbes and what can be done to identify which leached chemicals are most harmful.
We demonstrated in our recent Communications Biology paper how marine photosynthetic bacteria, Prochlorococcus, are adversely affected by leachates from commonly used plastics. This study was one of the first to consider how substances leaching from plastics may affect marine primary producers and demonstrated that plastic pollution has the potential to negatively impact a wider range of organisms than previously appreciated. We outline here key outstanding questions regarding how ocean plastic pollution may impact small, but essential, marine microbes and discuss how these can be addressed. Following up on their recent study in Communications Biology Sasha Tetu et al discuss how plastic pollution of the oceans may affect marine microbes as well as strategies to identify the substances responsible for leachate toxicity and to further understand their impact.
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