{"id":83359,"date":"2023-04-18T11:58:08","date_gmt":"2023-04-18T15:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/?post_type=news&#038;p=83359"},"modified":"2023-04-18T11:58:08","modified_gmt":"2023-04-18T15:58:08","slug":"this-floating-ocean-garbage-is-home-to-a-surprising-amount-of-life-from-the-coasts","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/news\/this-floating-ocean-garbage-is-home-to-a-surprising-amount-of-life-from-the-coasts\/","title":{"rendered":"This floating ocean garbage is home to a surprising amount of life from the coasts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-responsive\" src=\"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/oceangarbage_Linsey_Haram_edited_nik.jpg\" alt=\"A piece of plastic debris that's been colonized by both coastal barnacles (pink and striped) and a gooseneck barnacle from the open ocean.\" \/><span style=\"font-size: 0.85em;\">A piece of plastic debris that&#8217;s been colonized by both coastal barnacles (pink and striped) and a gooseneck barnacle from the open ocean. Photo: Linsey Haram\/SERC Marine Invasions Lab.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>By <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wunc.org\/people\/nell-greenfieldboyce\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Nell Greenfieldboyce<\/strong><\/a>, WUNC<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Scientists studying a giant collection of plastic trash floating in the middle of the open ocean have found some unexpected inhabitants: dozens of marine species that usually stick close to the coast.<\/p>\n<p>Among the plastic debris, the researchers found all kinds of nonnative species, from anemones to worms to little crustaceans.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To find that many coastal species on a relatively small sample size was shocking,&#8221; says <a href=\"https:\/\/profiles.si.edu\/display\/nHaramL362018\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Linsey Haram<\/strong><\/a>, a marine ecologist who did this research while working at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.<\/p>\n<p>The findings, published in <em>Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution<\/em> (<a href=\"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/staff\/megan-mcculler\"><strong>Megan McCuller<\/strong><\/a>, NCMNS&#8217; Collections Manager for Non-molluscan Invertebrates, was a co-author), should help overturn the long-held idea that the open ocean is a barrier that most coastal species could never breach.<\/p>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wunc.org\/2023-04-17\/this-floating-ocean-garbage-is-home-to-a-surprising-amount-of-life-from-the-coasts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read or listen to the full story on WUNC<\/a><\/h4>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Eurekalert news release: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurekalert.org\/news-releases\/986356\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Coastal species persist on high seas on floating plastic debris<\/a><\/p>\n<hr class=\"cleardiv\" \/>\n<p><em>For more information about our upcoming activities, conservation news and ground-breaking research, follow @NaturalSciences on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/naturalsciences\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/naturalsciences\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/naturalsciences\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83365,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/83359"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/83359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}