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How the environment shapes the plastisphere of microplastic in a coastal lagoon – a living lab test
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Bacterial communities colonizing microplastics in a brackish lagoon showed higher diversity than surrounding water and were shaped more strongly by local environmental conditions — salinity, temperature, pH — than by polymer type. This finding is important because the plastisphere can harbor pathogenic bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes, potentially transmitting them through aquatic food webs to humans.
Globally, the prevalence of microplastic particles in aquatic environments is increasing exponentially necessitating a need to understand the potential risks. Of particular concern is bacterial attachment to plastic surfaces (the plastisphere) and the risk that these novel surfaces might pose for the fate and transfer of environmental pathogens. To date, studies comparing geographically isolated samples have dominated over systematic approaches. Here, we utilised a temperate brackish lagoon with a natural environmental gradient (Fleet Lagoon, Dorset, U.K.) to explore the colonisation of bacterial communities on microplastics and natural controls (glass beads and the particle attached water fraction). We deployed polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene and glass-bead controls for four weeks across a salinity-temperature-pH gradient and characterised resulting biofilms and water-fraction communities using 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing. Analysing the plastisphere communities of post-exposure particles revealed that microplastic associated communities had a higher diversity than that observed for the planktonic bacterial community of the surrounding waters across all samples and sites. Beta-diversity analyses showed clear separation between particle-associated, particle-attached and planktonic communities, with polymer type explaining only a small proportion of variance compared with strong site-driven environmental effects. We also found that particle-associated communities exhibited some differences between the microplastic and the glass particles. Environmental parameters influenced bacterial communities attached to all particles, with Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes dominating across all tested samples. Contrary to expectations, vibrios were not actively enriched on microplastic particles, with the highest relative abundance 4 times higher in the particle attached water fraction (13.07%) than on any microplastic particles.
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Plastic substrates incubated in Baltic Sea water developed distinct bacterial communities that differed significantly from those on glass surfaces and from the surrounding water, with some plastic-colonizing taxa selected for regardless of polymer type. The study provides experimental evidence that plastic surfaces act as selective filters for microbial community assembly, contributing to the concept of a unique plastisphere.
Colonization Characteristics of Bacterial Communities on Plastic Debris Influenced by Environmental Factors and Polymer Types in the Haihe Estuary of Bohai Bay, China
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Bacterial communities colonizing plastic debris in the Haihe Estuary of Bohai Bay, China, were shaped by both environmental factors (season, salinity, temperature) and the type of plastic polymer, with distinct microbial assemblages forming on different plastic surfaces. The results demonstrate that the "plastisphere" in estuarine environments is a dynamically structured microbial habitat.
From rivers to marine environments: A constantly evolving microbial community within the plastisphere
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Researchers sampled 107 plastic pieces across four aquatic ecosystems in southern France and found that the sampling location and polymer chemistry were the strongest drivers of plastisphere microbial community composition, while only 11% of samples showed elevated Vibrio pathogen levels compared to surrounding water.
Analysis of 16S rRNA amplicon data illuminates the major role of environment in determining the marine plastisphere microbial communities
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By reanalyzing publicly available microbiome data from marine microplastics collected at multiple ocean locations, this study found that the surrounding water environment shapes the community of microbes living on plastic surfaces (the plastisphere) more strongly than the type of plastic polymer does. While both location and polymer type matter, once environmental differences were accounted for, polymer type alone had no statistically significant effect on microbial diversity. This is important because microplastics can carry and transport harmful microbes across vast ocean distances, and understanding what controls those communities helps assess the ecological risk.
Formation of specific bacterial assemblages on sterile polyethylene microplastic particles added to a marine aquaria system
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Researchers characterized bacterial assemblages that formed on sterile polyethylene microplastic particles after 12 weeks of incubation in marine aquaria, comparing the plastisphere communities to those on sterile sandy sediment and in water fractions to determine whether microplastics select for distinct or potentially pathogenic bacterial communities. The study found that microplastics hosted specific bacterial assemblages distinct from surrounding environmental fractions, confirming their role as selective surfaces for microbial colonization.
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