Plastic In The Ocean? This Batch Is For Science

Areef-mimicking project in the Mediterranean Sea is deploying plastic into the ocean, not removing it. The temporary reef in the Gulf of La Spezia, off Italy’s northwest coast, should help determine whether aquatic organisms can withstand ocean acidification.

- Elaine Lembo

The 12-month experiment is a collaboration among several universities and agencies, says Federica Ragazzola, of the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom. It will test the influence of coralline algae on nearby life forms. The idea is to see whether organisms living inside the algae might have a survival advantage in an era of climate change.

“We don’t aim to put more plastic in the ocean,” she says. “We deployed little plastic reefs because we want to test the buffer effect of coralline algae on its associated fauna. The plastic reef will eventually be removed from the sea and placed in an aquarium for the ‘acid test.’ ”

As the world’s oceans warm and acidify, coral fail to absorb the calcium carbonate they need to maintain skeletons. The resulting “bleaching” is a dissolving, or die-off, of the reef and a drop in ecosystem diversity.