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Impact of microplastics on microbial community structure in the Qiantang river: A potential source of N2O emissions
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Researchers examined how microplastics affect microbial community structure in the Qiantang River, finding that plastic contamination selects for specific bacterial taxa and alters the functional composition of river microbial communities.
This study aimed to investigate the spatial distribution of microplastics (MPs) and the features of the bacterial community in the Qiantang River urban river. Surface water samples from the Qiantang River were analyzed for this purpose. The results of the 16S high-throughput sequencing indicated that the microbial community diversity of MPs was significantly lower than in natural water but higher than in natural substrates. The biofilm of MPs was mainly composed of Enterobacteriaceae (28.00%), Bacillaceae (16.25%), and Phormidiaceae (6.75%). The biodiversity on MPs, natural water, and natural substrates varied significantly and was influenced by seasonal factors. In addition, the presence of MPs hindered the denitrification process in the aquatic environment and intensified NO emission when the nitrate concentration was higher than normal. In particular, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) exhibited a 12% residue of NO-N and a 4.2% accumulation of NO after a duration of 48 h. Further findings on gene abundance and cell viability provided further confirmation that PET had a considerable impact on reducing the expression of nirS (by 0.34-fold) and nosZ (by 0.53-fold), hence impeding the generation of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) (by 0.79-fold). Notably, all MPs demonstrated higher the nirK gene abundances than the nirS gene, which could account for the significant accumulation of NO. The results suggest that MPs can serve as a novel carrier substrate for microbial communities and as a potential promoter of NO emission in aquatic environments.
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Researchers measured microplastic abundance in inflow rivers of China's Taihu Lake and linked it to elevated nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions from surface water and sediment. Microplastic-associated shifts in microbial communities appeared to drive increased denitrification-related N2O flux, connecting plastic pollution to greenhouse gas cycling.
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