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Microbiomes on microplastics versus natural microcarriers: Stability and transformation during aquatic travel from aquaculture ponds to adjacent stream
Summary
Researchers compared microbial communities that form on microplastics versus natural materials as they travel from aquaculture ponds to adjacent streams. They found that different plastic types harbored distinct microbial communities, and that these plastisphere communities were less stable than those on natural substrates during transit between water bodies. The study suggests that microplastics may spread different assemblages of microorganisms as they move through connected aquatic environments.
Microplastics (MPs) with different physical-chemical properties are considered as vectors for the propagation of microbes in aquatic environments. It remains unclear how plastic types impact on the plastisphere and whether different MPs spread microbes more rapidly than natural materials in microbes across distinct water bodies as proposed previously. We used in-situ incubation to investigate the microbes attached on MPs of polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), versus that on two natural microcarriers (quartz sands and bamboo) during the travel from aquaculture ponds with impacted by fish farming to adjacent freshwater stream. The results showed that the microbial communities on the carriers were shaped not only by environmental conditions, which were primary determinants but also by carrier types. All the tested plastics did not carry more microbes than the natural carriers during the journey. The biofilm community composition on PVC is distinct from that on PE and PP MPs and natural carriers. The plastisphere of PE and PP kept microbial proportions as natural materials did but PVC retained less than nature materials. Bamboo carried more potential pathogens than plastic polymers and quartz. The results indicated that the communities of plastisphere is polymer-type dependent, and, compared with the natural materials, MPs did not show enhanced propagation of microbes, including pathogens, cross distinct environments.