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Plastisphere provides a unique ecological niche for microorganisms in Zostera marina seagrass meadows
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Researchers incubated three types of microplastics in a seagrass meadow for one month and found that microbial communities on plastic surfaces differed significantly from those on natural substrates. Microplastic invasion shifted carbon- and nitrogen-fixing microbes and related genes, potentially affecting the carbon sequestration capacity of seagrass ecosystems. The study also raises concerns about antibiotic resistance genes accumulating on microplastic surfaces in these environments.
Abstract Seagrass meadows are renowned for their associated ecosystem services and carbon sequestration capacity, with microorganisms playing a crucial role. However, the invasion of microplastics may disrupt these processes. Here, we conducted a one-month in-situ incubation of three prevalent types of microplastics in the seagrass meadow of Swan Lake, China. The results showed significant differences in microbial communities between the plastisphere and natural matrices. Cyanobacteria exhibited a strong preference for polyethylene terephthalate, and microplastic shape and their contact area with water may be key factors in shaping microbial communities. Meanwhile, microplastic invasion can shift carbon- and nitrogen-fixing microbes and related genes, thereby changing seagrass meadows’ carbon and nitrogen cycles. This may impact the carbon sequestration capacity of seagrass meadows and pose potential risks of water blooms. Additionally, the potential ecological risks posed by the large number of resistance genes adsorbed by microplastics in the ecosystem are also worthy of attention.
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Researchers placed microplastics in seagrass meadows and compared microbial communities growing on plastic near leaves versus near roots. Microplastics near leaves carried more harmful bacteria, antibiotic resistance genes and disease-related genes, including genes for multidrug resistance, than those near roots, with traits linked to dense biofilms and bacterial activity.
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Microplastisphere as a crowded and inclusive micro-ecosystem in seagrass meadow: Cross-kingdom connections and microbial food web
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Researchers characterized the microplastisphere — the microbial community colonizing plastic surfaces in a seagrass meadow — as a complete, self-sufficient ecosystem containing bacteria, protists, fungi, microalgae, and micrometazoa, with cross-kingdom interactions between bacteria and protists maintaining community stability and a full microbial food web operating on the plastic surface.
Colonization time of plastisphere drives the dynamics of organic carbon stability and microbial communities in seagrass bed sediments
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Researchers conducted a 56-day experiment to study how microplastic biofilm formation affects organic carbon stability and microbial communities in seagrass bed sediments. They found that both polystyrene and polylactic acid microplastics altered microbial community structure and influenced carbon pool stability in the sediments over time. The study suggests that microplastic pollution may pose risks to carbon cycling and ecological functioning in seagrass ecosystems.
The plastisphere ecology: Assessing the impact of different pollution sources on microbial community composition, function and assembly in aquatic ecosystems
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Researchers studied the microbial communities living on microplastic surfaces (called the plastisphere) across four different aquatic sites and found that plastics host a distinctly different mix of microbes than the surrounding water, shaped by local pollution sources. These plastic-surface microbes also carry more antibiotic resistance genes and show greater potential for breaking down plastics, making the plastisphere both a health concern and a potential bioremediation resource.
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