How Microbes Steer the Fate of Ocean Plastic
A microplastic particle drifts on the surface of a warm sea. Within days, invisible hitchhikers, bacteria and single-celled algae, cover it.
This living film acts as ballast: the particle becomes heavier and starts to sink. In a new global model, oceanographers have for the first time tracked the fate of such "hitchhiking" plastic across the entire planet.