The plastic that's floating in the oceans are covered in microscopic life. According to a new study, it is a species never seen before and entirely new to science.

The study appears in Environmental Science and Technology and researchers Tracy Mincer from the Woods hole Oceanographic Institution of Massachusetts and Linda Amaral-Zettler of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods hole used fine mesh nets to collect pieces of plastic from the North Atlantic Ocean.

The researchers discovered a diverse community of heterotrophs (organisms that feed off of complex organic substances), autotrophs (organisms that feed off simple inorganic substances like carbon dioxide), predators, and symbionts. The dynamic ecosystem has also gained a new name - plastisphere.

The researchers say that the plastic is acting as a veritable reef onto which the microbes are clinging. These "microbial reefs" are offering a distinct place that selects for and supports advantageous microbes to settle, succeed — and evolve.

Read the entire study at Environmental Science and Technology: "Life in the "Plastisphere": Microbial Communities on Plastic Marine Debris."