塑料垃圾成为海洋生物的新栖息地

在被称为 “太平洋垃圾带” 的开阔海洋地区，科学家发现了生活在塑料残渣上的海洋生物。

 

There are at least five hotspots of floating plastic in the global ocean.

全球海洋中至少有五个漂浮着塑料的热点地区。

 

These are gyres, where circulating currents trap debris¹. This one ­– the so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch – is the largest, with almost 80,000 tonnes distributed over 600,000 square miles.

这些都是海洋环流地带，而环流会聚集残渣。其中，这个被称为 “太平洋垃圾带” 的区域最大，有8万吨垃圾分布在60万平方英里范围内。

 

The scientists teamed up with a charity that collects old fishing gear and other litter from the ocean, and gathered hundreds of plastic items to study in the lab.

科学家们与一家从海洋中收集旧渔具和其它垃圾的慈善机构合作，采捞了数以百计的塑料物品，送到实验室进行研究。

 

They found plants and animals, including anemones², tiny marine³ bugs⁴, molluscs, and crabs⁵ on 90% of the debris they examined.

他们在90%的塑料残渣上发现了动植物，包括海葵、微小的海洋昆虫、软体动物和螃蟹。

 

As well as creating a semi-permanent floating habitat for coastal⁶ species in the open ocean, the researchers say all this plastic could be providing invasive species with rafts that allow them to cross the Pacific.

研究人员表示，这些塑料除了在开阔海洋中为沿海物种创造了一个半永久性的漂浮栖息地以外，也可以成为入侵物种的 “筏子”，使其穿越太平洋。

 

This, they say, is yet another unintended consequence of plastic pollution for the ocean.

他们指出，这是海洋塑料污染的另一个意想不到的后果。

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