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A comprehensive pan-European exploration of fungal plastisphere dynamics along river-to-sea continuums
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Scientists studying microplastics in nine major European rivers found that these tiny plastic bits act like rafts, carrying their own distinct communities of fungi, including some potentially disease-causing types, as they travel from rivers toward the ocean. The good news: this study suggests these harmful fungi mostly stay behind in freshwater and don't hitch a ride into marine waters, meaning microplastics may not be as effective at spreading river-based fungal pathogens to the ocean as previously feared. Still, this highlights how microplastics can act as unexpected vehicles for microorganisms, which is worth continued monitoring as pl
Microplastics (MPs) provide persistent substrates facilitating microbial transport across ecosystems. Since most marine plastic debris originates from land and are transported through rivers, a key concern is the dispersal of freshwater fungi into marine environments. Here, we characterized fungal communities colonizing MPs and immersed pristine microplastics (pMPs), as well as those in the surrounding waters, along the river-to-sea continuum in nine major European rivers during the Tara Microplastics expedition. DNA metabarcoding of the V9 region of the 18S rRNA gene showed fungi representing 4.6% of the total sequence reads and 6.2% of total richness among microeukaryotes, ranking in the top five microeukaryotic groups. Distinct fungal communities on MPs and pMPs compared to surrounding waters highlight clear differentiation between plastic-associated and ambient fungi in both marine and freshwater systems. Artificially immersed pMPs (1 month) resembled ambient water communities more than floating MPs. The latter exhibited high variability in fungal composition, suggesting complex and heterogeneous colonization patterns along the river-to-sea continuum. We also revealed a clear gradient in fungal community structure from freshwater to marine environments, with strong but incomplete segregation of plastisphere composition. Putative pathogenic fungi appeared enriched on MPs exclusively in freshwater, supporting limited transfer of these taxa toward marine-influenced environments.
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The Aquatic Plastisphere: Methodology, Biofilm Formation Mechanism, and Microbial Diversity
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Researchers reviewed how microbial communities form biofilms on microplastics in aquatic environments — creating a unique man-made ecosystem called the plastisphere — and found that these biofilms significantly alter how microplastics move, transform, and affect other organisms in freshwater, marine, and wetland settings.
Distinct microbial communities in the microplastisphere of inland wetlands: Diversity, composition, co-occurrence networks, and functions.
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Researchers collected samples from different inland wetland types to characterize the microbial communities colonizing plastic surfaces (the microplastisphere), finding distinct bacterial and fungal communities compared to surrounding soils. Community composition varied by wetland type and plastic surface, highlighting the ecological diversity of plastic-associated microbiomes in freshwater habitats.
Exploring the blindspot: The soil plastisphere
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This commentary reviews the emerging concept of the soil plastisphere — the unique microbial ecosystem colonizing plastic debris in soil — highlighting key differences from the better-studied marine plastisphere in microbial communities, biogeochemical cycles, and ecological effects. Understanding soil plastisphere dynamics is critical because these plastic-associated microbes may alter nutrient cycling, spread antibiotic resistance, and change how toxic chemicals move through agricultural and natural soils.
Bacterial communities on microplastics in a wetland ecosystem
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Analysis of bacterial communities on microplastics in Poyang Lake, China's largest freshwater lake, found that MP surfaces host distinct microbial assemblages with lower diversity but unique taxa enriched with Pseudomonas, and that MPs facilitate bacterial exchange between water and sediment. The plastisphere — the microbial community colonizing MP surfaces — may serve as a vector for pathogens and disease-associated microbes, raising concerns about ecological disruption and indirect human health risks through contaminated freshwater.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.