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The Travelling Particles: Changes in Microplastic Biofilm Community Structure Across a Salinity Gradient
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Researchers tracked how the composition of bacterial biofilm communities on microplastic surfaces changed as particles moved from a river through an estuary into the sea, finding significant community restructuring across the salinity gradient. Microplastics thus carry distinct microbial assemblages that shift as they travel through different environments, potentially spreading freshwater microbes into marine ecosystems.
An increasing number of studies report on microplastics (MP) in nature and their interactions with microbial communities. Rivers, as major transport routes for MP into marine systems and as reservoirs for bacteria, are important focal points in understanding these interactions. This study aims to investigate MP as substrates for bacterial colonization and their potential to transport these communities from riverine to marine environments. This transport was simulated via a sequential incubation experiment, where 3 sample types, synthetic (HDPE, tyre wear) and natural (wood) particles, were enclosed in a cage and successively incubated at four sites, from freshwater (Weser estuary) to coastal seawater offshore (Helgoland, North Sea). After each incubation period, a subset of each particle type and surface waters were sampled and the cage moved to the subsequent site. A second cage was simultaneously incubated at the offshore site for the entire period. Bacterial communities differed significantly between sample types at each site and across the salinity gradient. Communities detected on HDPE were the most diverse, while those on tyre wear were the least. Percentage similarities between sample types were low overall while similarities within each type decreased across the salinity gradient. Of the total detected ASVs, only 0.7 % were successively found on HDPE across all sites, none of which were detected on HDPE from the second cage offshore. Our results show an almost complete turnover of bacterial communities on MP transported from riverine to marine systems
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The travelling particles: community dynamics of biofilms on microplastics transferred along a salinity gradient
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Researchers tracked how microbial communities on microplastics changed as the particles moved along a salinity gradient from freshwater to marine environments, finding that the plastisphere shifted substantially with changing salinity. The results suggest that microplastics can transport distinct microbial assemblages across environmental boundaries.
The travelling particles: community dynamics of biofilms on microplastics transferred along a salinity gradient
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Researchers studied whether microbial communities living on microplastics can survive when the plastic is transported from one aquatic environment to another — for example, from freshwater to marine systems. The results showed that some community members persisted through environmental transitions, suggesting that microplastics can act as vehicles for dispersing microorganisms across ecosystem boundaries. This has implications for understanding whether microplastics could help spread potentially harmful microbes into new environments.
Characterization of Microplastic-Associated Biofilm Development along a Freshwater-Estuarine Gradient
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Researchers characterized biofilm bacterial communities on three types of microplastics incubated along a freshwater-estuarine gradient, finding that salinity and plastic type influenced microbial community composition and succession over a 31-day period.
A Pan-European study of the bacterial plastisphere diversity along river-to-sea continuums
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Researchers conducted a large-scale study of bacterial communities living on microplastic surfaces along river-to-sea pathways in nine major European rivers during the Tara Microplastics mission. They found that microplastics can transport freshwater bacteria into marine environments, representing a potential dispersal mechanism for microorganisms across ecosystems. The study highlights that the plastisphere community composition shifts along the river-sea continuum.
Direct Evidence of Microplastic-Mediated Microbial Migration Across the River-Sea Transition via a Novel Field-Laboratory Coupled Approach
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Microplastics floating down rivers into the ocean carry a coating of bacteria—the 'plastisphere'—but whether these microbial hitchhikers actually alter marine microbial communities upon arrival was unclear. This study combined field incubation in freshwater and lab simulation of the river-sea transition, finding that long-incubated plastispheres (140 days) rapidly disrupted marine microbial community structure within days of contact, while freshly formed biofilms had minimal effect. The finding suggests that microplastics traveling long distances from inland sources may be more ecologically disruptive to coastal marine ecosystems than locally produced plastic debris, because older biofilms carry established microbial communities that can outcompete native marine microbes.
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