Dictionary

plastisphere en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈplæstɪˌsfɪəɹ/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Hellenic *plátʰyō Proto-Hellenic *plát͏̌t͏̌ō? Ancient Greek πλάσσω (plássō) Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Hellenic *-tis Ancient Greek -τῐς (-tĭs) Ancient Greek -σῐς (-sĭs) Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Hellenic *-kos Ancient Greek -κός (-kós) ? Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Hellenic *-tós Ancient Greek -τος (-tos) ▲ Ancient Greek -κός (-kós) ? Ancient Greek -τικός (-tikós) Ancient Greek πλᾰστῐκός (plăstĭkós)der. Latin plasticusder. English plastic Ancient Greek σφαῖρᾰ (sphaîră)bor. Latin sphaera Late Latin sphērader. Old French spherebor. Middle English spere English sphere English -sphere English plastisphere From plastic + -sphere, analogous to biosphere. Coined by American biologist Linda Amaral-Zettler.

Meanings

1. The ecosystem on the surface of a piece of plastic (especially in a marine environment).
   • Freshwater and marine habitats share a number of features, but there are also differences between them that may affect the development and activities of plastisphere consortia. 2017, Martin Wagner, Scott Lambert, Freshwater Microplastics: Emerging Environmental Contaminants?, Springer, →ISBN, page 183:
   • (The Plastisphere is one of the many industrial-natural ecosystems that characterize the Anthropocene.) Cleaning ocean plastics, even if it were technologically possible on a scale that would make a difference, would disrupt and destroy the life we would be trying to save in the first place. 2014, Marina Zurkow, The Petroleum Manga, punctum books, →DOI, →ISBN, page 24:
   • ut those interested in smaller critters have been given a whole, new sphere—the plastisphere—to study. 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845, archived from the original on 14 Aug 2020:
   • Plastic in the ocean is constantly being degraded; even something as big and buoyant as a milk jug will eventually shed and splinter into microplastics. These plastics develop biofilms of distinct microbial communities — the “plastisphere,” said Linda Amaral-Zettler, a scientist at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, who coined the term. […] A sample of South Atlantic water containing plankton and microplastics. Ocean plastics commonly develop a filmy “plastisphere” of distinct microbial communities. 2022 April 3, Sabrina Imbler, “In the Ocean, It’s Snowing Microplastics”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 05 Apr 2022:

Forms