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A Pan-European study of the bacterial plastisphere diversity along river-to-sea continuums
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Researchers conducted a large-scale study of bacterial communities living on microplastic surfaces along river-to-sea pathways in nine major European rivers during the Tara Microplastics mission. They found that microplastics can transport freshwater bacteria into marine environments, representing a potential dispersal mechanism for microorganisms across ecosystems. The study highlights that the plastisphere community composition shifts along the river-sea continuum.
Microplastics provide a persistent substrate that can facilitate microbial transport across ecosystems. Since most marine plastic debris originates from land and reaches the ocean through rivers, the potential dispersal of freshwater bacteria into the sea represents a significant concern. To address this question, we explored the plastisphere on microplastic debris (MPs) and on pristine microplastics (pMPs) as well as the bacteria living in surrounding waters, along the river-sea continuum in nine major European rivers sampled during the 7 months of the Tara Microplastics mission. In both marine and riverine waters, we found a clear niche partitioning among MPs and pMPs plastispheres when compared to the bacteria living in the surrounding waters. Across this large dataset, we found that bacterial community structure varied along the river salinity gradient, with plastisphere communities exhibiting almost complete segregation between freshwater and marine ecosystems. We also described for the first time a virulent human pathogenic bacterium (Shewanella putrefaciens), capable of infecting human intestinal epithelial cells, detected exclusively on MPs in riverine environments. Our findings indicate that salinity is the main driver of plastisphere communities along the river-to-sea continuum, helping to mitigate the risk of pathogens transfer between freshwater and marine systems.
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Metabolomic analysis of plastisphere microbial communities in the river-sea continuum
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Researchers conducted the first non-targeted metabolomic analysis of plastisphere microbial communities along river-to-sea continua, immersing polyethylene pellets for one month at five stations across nine major European rivers as part of the Tara Microplastics expedition. Results revealed a clear metabolic distinction between freshwater and seawater plastisphere communities, with metabolome composition correlating with salinity gradients in several rivers.
Comparative analysis of the microbial plastisphere at three sites along the Sarno river (Italy)
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Sampling along the heavily polluted Sarno River in Italy — one of Europe's most contaminated waterways — found that microplastics and their associated bacterial communities (the plastisphere) change substantially between the river, estuary, and coastal marine zone. The estuarine station showed extremely high microplastic concentrations, and the microbial community analysis revealed that plastic-attached bacteria are well-suited to colonizing new environments as they travel downstream, raising concerns about microplastics serving as rafts for potentially pathogenic or invasive microorganisms.
The Travelling Particles: Changes in Microplastic Biofilm Community Structure Across a Salinity Gradient
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Researchers tracked how the composition of bacterial biofilm communities on microplastic surfaces changed as particles moved from a river through an estuary into the sea, finding significant community restructuring across the salinity gradient. Microplastics thus carry distinct microbial assemblages that shift as they travel through different environments, potentially spreading freshwater microbes into marine ecosystems.
Direct Evidence of Microplastic-Mediated Microbial Migration Across the River-Sea Transition via a Novel Field-Laboratory Coupled Approach
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Microplastics floating down rivers into the ocean carry a coating of bacteria—the 'plastisphere'—but whether these microbial hitchhikers actually alter marine microbial communities upon arrival was unclear. This study combined field incubation in freshwater and lab simulation of the river-sea transition, finding that long-incubated plastispheres (140 days) rapidly disrupted marine microbial community structure within days of contact, while freshly formed biofilms had minimal effect. The finding suggests that microplastics traveling long distances from inland sources may be more ecologically disruptive to coastal marine ecosystems than locally produced plastic debris, because older biofilms carry established microbial communities that can outcompete native marine microbes.
The travelling particles: community dynamics of biofilms on microplastics transferred along a salinity gradient
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Researchers tracked how microbial communities on microplastics changed as the particles moved along a salinity gradient from freshwater to marine environments, finding that the plastisphere shifted substantially with changing salinity. The results suggest that microplastics can transport distinct microbial assemblages across environmental boundaries.
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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.