Distinct Responses of Biofilm Carbon Metabolism to Nanoplastics with Different Surface Modifications

Recently, there is an increasing concern regarding the toxicity of nanoplastics (NPs) on freshwater organisms. However, knowledge about the potential impacts of NPs with different surface modification on freshwater biofilms is still very limited. In this research, biofilms were cultured in lab and exposed to nano polystyrene (PS) beads: non-functionalized PS NPs, PS-COOH NPs, and the carbon source utilization of biofilms were measured by BIOLOG ECO microplates. The results showed that both two types of PS NPs significantly reduced the total carbon metabolic activity of biofilms, compared with the controls, whereas the carbon metabolic rate increased notably, especially for the PS-COOH NPs treatments at day 14. Moreover, results from six categories of carbon sources analysis suggested that PS NPs with different surface chemical properties exhibit distinct effects on the carbon utilization of biofilms, and the divergent changes of the specific carbon source category were observed at day 21 from the two PS NPs treatments. In addition, the metabolic functional diversity of biofilms were not altered by the PS NPs treatments. These findings highlighted that chemical properties of NPs play an important role in the toxic effects on the carbon metabolism activities of the biofilms. This study offers new insights that nanoplastics of different chemical characteristics have the ability to affect the microbial-mediated carbon cycling process in aquatic ecosystems.