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Microplastics Affect Anaerobic Oxidation of Methane and Sedimentary Prokaryotic Communities in Cold Seep Areas
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Laboratory experiments exposing cold seep seafloor sediments to microplastics for 120 days showed that polyamide and PET microplastics reduced methane oxidation rates to roughly a third of normal and altered the bacterial communities responsible for this process. Cold seep sediments are major global sinks for methane, so microplastic disruption of this microbial activity could have implications for greenhouse gas cycling in deep ocean environments.
In this study, a microcosm experiment for 120 days exposure of microplastics (MPs) on cold seep sediment was conducted.The results showed that different types and doses of MPs addition negatively affected the anaerobic oxidation of CH4.The CH4 oxidation rates with 0.05 % PA and PET addition were only account for approximately 33% of that for the biotic control group.MPs addition did not significantly influence the archaeal community structures but caused a redistribution of bacterial community compositions.The addition of PA, PE, and PET could significantly increase the relative abundance of Desulfobacterota and made Caldatribacteriota almost undetectable.By the present study, we can have a preliminary understanding of the effects of microplastics on anaerobic oxidation of CH4 and prokaryotic communities in the cold seep sediment.
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