photo

A Microbial Reef

A tiny piece of plastic photographed by a scanning electron micrograph.
(Courtesy of Erik Zettler)
This photograph from a scanning electron micrograph shows the plastisphere up close. Here you can see a microbial reef forming on a tiny piece of plastic found in the open ocean. A variety of single-celled organisms make up the reef, and you can also see cracks in the plastic that have started to form due to weathering.