Plastic Pollution Is Harmful For Bacteria Which Produce Oxygen

Do you have any idea about a species of bacteria which resides in the ocean and is responsible for producing 10% of the oxygen which we breathe in? In a new study, it has been found that the plastic polluting the world's oceans is negatively affecting the oxygen levels which these bacteria produce.

In a first-of-its-kind study, Macquarie University researchers in Australia have analyzed the effects that plastics have on a kind of photosynthetic marine bacteria called Prochlorococcus.

Their findings have been published in the journal Communications Biology.

"These small microorganisms are complicated to the marine food web, take part in carbon cycling, and are thought to be the reason for up to 10% of the total global oxygen production," told the co-author Lisa Moore.

She also added that one in every 10 breaths of oxygen we breathe in is thanks to these tiny guys, yet almost nothing is known about how marine bacteria, like as Prochlorococcus, respond to human pollutants.

Up to 12.7 million tons of plastic is dumped in the ocean every year, leading to a risk to nearly 200 marine species — from mammals and birds to fish and invertebrates — which may ingest it.

In 2018, a research shows that humans also unwittingly consume microplastics and had a debate regarding what the effect of this might be on our health.

Recently, there was a report by the conservation organization Fauna & Flora International (FFI), who worked with two charities and the Institute of Development Studies in the United Kingdom, analyzed the effects of plastic pollution on human mortality.

This report gave a result that every 30 seconds; a person in the developing world dies as a consequence of pollution from mishandled waste.

The plastic pollution problem is getting worse, with projections giving suggestions that by 2050, the amount of plastic in the ocean will outweigh the number of fishes by weight.

Plastics can make bacteria to generate less oxygen

The Macquarie University team exposed two different strains of Prochlorococcus to chemicals which they had extracted from plastic grocery bags and PVC matting. They found that this exposure significantly is the reasons of the reduction of the growth and function of the bacteria as compared to the control bacteria.

The researchers observed alterations in the expression of the genes of the bacteria. This means that the genes were not activating in the usual way to produce the needed proteins.

Most importantly, the researchers analyzed that the bacteria which they exposed to the plastic chemicals produced lower levels of oxygen than the control bacteria.

If they truly want to understand the full impact of plastic pollution in the marine environment and get some ways to mitigate it then they need to consider its impact on key microbial groups, including photosynthetic microbes.

By: Preeti Narula

Content: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325264.php