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Microbial adaptation to co-occurring vanadium and microplastics in marine and riverine environments
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Researchers studied the co-occurrence of vanadium contamination and microplastics in marine and riverine environments and examined how microbial communities respond to both pollutants. They found high concentrations of both contaminants across water and sediment samples, with microplastic biofilms enriched in plastic-degrading bacteria and vanadium-reducing species. The study suggests that vanadium influences microbial community composition on microplastics both directly and indirectly through changes to environmental conditions like pH.
Vanadium (V) and microplastics have been respectively detected in environmental media, posing threats to ecosystem and human health. However, their co-existence situations in environment with microbial adaptation have been poorly understood. In this study, water and sediments collected from potential V polluted marine and riverine ecosystems were analyzed to reveal the distribution of V and microplastics with microbial responses. High concentrations of V (1.65-6.92 μg/L in water and 6.16-347.92 mg/kg in sediment) and microplastics (800-15600 item/m in water and 20-700 item/kg in sediment) co-occurred in aquatic environment. Less rich and diverse bacterial communities were colonized on microplastics compared to surrounding environment. Plastic-degrading taxa (e.g., Ralstonia, Rhodococcus) and V(V) reducers (e.g., Bacillus, Pseudomonas) were enriched in microplastic biofilms. Redundancy analysis showed that V, together with nutrients, ambient conditions and Cr, contributed significantly to the compositions of microbial community on microplastics. Besides directly acting on microbial community, V could also alter it by influencing environmental factors (e.g., pH), as indicated through structural equation model. This study advances understanding the previously ignored interactions of biogeochemical processes of V and microplastics in aquatic environment.
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