02/07/2018 / By Ralph Flores
An international study revealed that plastic waste drifting in the ocean could adversely impact the corals it gets tangled with, as the material provides a favorable environment for microbial colonization. The study, which was published in the journal Science, investigated 159 coral reefs in the Asia-Pacific region to determine how the plastic debris affects the coral, as well as the likelihood of disease of a coral tangled with plastic.
Through this investigation, researchers opined that a decrease in the amount of plastic entering the ocean would be advantageous to coral reefs, especially as its chances of getting disease-associated mortality is reduced.
Find the full text of the study at this link.
Journal Reference:
Lamb JB, Willis BL, Fiorenza EA, Couch CS, Howard R, Rader DN, True JD, Kelly LA, Ahmad A, Jompa J, et al. PLASTIC WASTE ASSOCIATED WITH DISEASE ON CORAL REEFS. Science. 2018;359(6374):460–462. DOI: dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aar3320
Tagged Under: coral reefs, corals, marine ecosystems, oceans and marine life, pathogen growth, plastic waste, reef systems