plastisphere

English

Etymology

From plastic +‎ -sphere, analogous to biosphere. Coined by American biologist Linda Amaral-Zettler.[1]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈplæstɪˌsfɪəɹ/

Noun

plastisphere (plural plastispheres)

  1. (ecology) The ecosystem on the surface of a piece of plastic (especially in a marine environment).
    • 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist‎[2], volume 408, number 8845, archived from the original on 14 August 2020:
      ut those interested in smaller critters have been given a whole, new sphere—the plastisphere—to study.
    • 2014, Marina Zurkow, The Petroleum Manga, punctum books, →DOI, →ISBN, page 24:
      (The Plastisphere is one of the many industrial-natural ecosystems that characterize the Anthropocene.) Cleaning ocean plastics, even if it were technologically possible on a scale that would make a difference, would disrupt and destroy the life we would be trying to save in the first place.
    • 2017, Martin Wagner, Scott Lambert, Freshwater Microplastics: Emerging Environmental Contaminants?, Springer, →ISBN, page 183:
      Freshwater and marine habitats share a number of features, but there are also differences between them that may affect the development and activities of plastisphere consortia.
    • 2022 April 3, Sabrina Imbler, “In the Ocean, It’s Snowing Microplastics”, in The New York Times‎[3], →ISSN, archived from the original on 5 April 2022:
      Plastic in the ocean is constantly being degraded; even something as big and buoyant as a milk jug will eventually shed and splinter into microplastics. These plastics develop biofilms of distinct microbial communities — the “plastisphere,” said Linda Amaral-Zettler, a scientist at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, who coined the term. […] A sample of South Atlantic water containing plankton and microplastics. Ocean plastics commonly develop a filmy “plastisphere” of distinct microbial communities.

References

  1. ^ Sabrina Imbler (3 April 2022), “In the Ocean, It’s Snowing Microplastics”, in The New York Times‎[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 5 April 2022:
    Plastic in the ocean is constantly being degraded; even something as big and buoyant as a milk jug will eventually shed and splinter into microplastics. These plastics develop biofilms of distinct microbial communities — the “plastisphere,” said Linda Amaral-Zettler, a scientist at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, who coined the term.

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