soil plastisphere: The nexus of microplastics, bacteria, and biofilms

Bacteria are one of the oldest life forms on Earth, dating back to more than 3.5 billion years ago. They control the global cycling of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. They provide plants, fungi and other organisms with the necessary nutrients and elements. They help us digest our food, protect us against pathogens, and even affect our behavior. Microplastics, however, have disrupted the bacterial ecosystems across the globe, from the soil to the oceans. Microplastics are tiny plastic particles formed as a result of the breakdown of the consumer products and plastic waste. Due to their stability and persistence, they can travel long distances in the soil and subsurface environments, ultimately making their way to the water resources, rivers, and oceans. In this journey, they interact with bacteria and other micro/macro-organisms, become ingested or colonized, and act as carriers for contaminants and pathogens. How and whether bacteria adapt to these new microplastic-rich ecosystems are open questions with far-reaching implications for the health of our planet and us. Therefore, there is an urgent need for improving our fundamental understanding of bacterial interactions with the microplastics in complex environments. In this commentary, we focus on the nexus of bacteria, biofilms, and microplastics, also known as the “plastisphere”, and discuss the challenges and opportunities.