Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

The Spatiotemporal Successions of Bacterial and Fungal Plastisphere Communities and Their Effects on Microplastic Degradation in Soil Ecosystems

Researchers tracked how bacterial and fungal communities colonize microplastic surfaces in soil over time, finding that the surrounding soil type had the strongest influence on which microbes grew on the plastics. The microbial communities on microplastics were less diverse and less stable than those in the surrounding soil, but they attracted microbes with a higher capacity to break down organic carbon. The study suggests that microplastic surfaces become hotspots for carbon metabolism in soil ecosystems.

2025 Environmental Science & Technology 16 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic polymer properties as deterministic factors driving terrestrial plastisphere microbiome assembly and succession in the field

Researchers incubated five common microplastic polymer types in landfill soil for 14 months and used 16S rRNA sequencing to characterize the plastisphere communities that assembled on each polymer. Polymer type was a significant deterministic factor in plastisphere microbiome composition, which differed from surrounding soil communities and varied over time.

2022 Environmental Microbiology 48 citations
Article Tier 2

Deciphering the Mechanisms Shaping the Plastisphere Microbiota in Soil

Researchers characterized bacterial communities colonizing biodegradable and conventional microplastics in soil, finding that polymer type and biodegradability shaped distinct plastisphere communities, with deterministic processes playing a stronger role in community assembly than in surrounding soil.

2022 mSystems 100 citations
Article Tier 2

The structure and assembly mechanisms of plastisphere microbial community in natural marine environment

Researchers investigated how microbial communities colonize different types of microplastic surfaces in natural marine environments over an eight-week period. They found that the composition of these plastic-associated microbial communities, known as the plastisphere, was shaped more by environmental conditions and time than by the specific type of plastic. The study provides new understanding of the ecological processes governing how microorganisms assemble on ocean plastic debris.

2021 Journal of Hazardous Materials 227 citations
Article Tier 2

Soil plastisphere: Exploration methods, influencing factors, and ecological insights

This review explored the soil plastisphere, examining how microplastics serve as substrates for microbial colonization in terrestrial ecosystems, and identified key factors influencing plastisphere formation, composition, and ecological functions in soil environments.

2022 Journal of Hazardous Materials 125 citations
Article Tier 2

Large-scale omics dataset of polymer degradation provides robust interpretation for microbial niche and succession on different plastisphere

Researchers generated a large-scale microbiome and metabolome dataset from five biodegradable polymer types, revealing that microbial communities converge to polymer-specific compositions during degradation and follow distinct succession stages from initial colonization through biofilm formation.

2023 ISME Communications 31 citations
Article Tier 2

The Terrestrial Plastisphere: Diversity and Polymer-Colonizing Potential of Plastic-Associated Microbial Communities in Soil

Soil-buried plastic debris harbored microbial communities clearly distinct from surrounding bulk soil and from aquatic plastisphere communities, with a core set of plastic-colonizing taxa including Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria detected across both polymer types tested, suggesting that terrestrial plastisphere colonization follows predictable ecological rules.

2021 Microorganisms 70 citations
Article Tier 2

Niche vs. habitat: Insights of aging microplastics and wetland types on bacterial community assembly

Researchers studied how bacterial communities assemble on microplastic surfaces (plastispheres) versus surrounding soil in three types of wetlands using low-density polyethylene. They found that wetland habitat type had a stronger influence on bacterial diversity patterns than whether the plastic was virgin or aged, with plastisphere communities showing lower diversity and more stochastic assembly compared to soil communities.

2025 Journal of Environmental Sciences 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Investigating the roles of microbes in biodegrading or colonizing microplastic surfaces

Researchers investigated the roles of microbes in biodegrading or colonizing microplastic surfaces, examining how microbial communities interact with plastic polymers in environmental settings. The study characterized the 'plastisphere' — the community of microorganisms that colonize microplastic surfaces — and assessed the extent to which microbial activity contributes to plastic degradation in natural environments.

2024
Article Tier 2

Soil mesofauna alter the balance between stochastic and deterministic processes in the plastisphere during microbial succession

Researchers investigated how soil mesofauna influence microbial community assembly on plastic debris in soil, finding that soil fauna shift the balance between stochastic and deterministic processes in plastisphere microbiome succession.

2022 The Science of The Total Environment 23 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic effects on soil organic matter dynamics and bacterial communities under contrasting soil environments

Researchers compared microplastic effects on soil organic matter dynamics and bacterial communities across contrasting soil environments, finding that the type of microplastic polymer and soil conditions together determine whether microbial activity and carbon cycling are stimulated or suppressed.

2024
Article Tier 2

Time-series incubations in a coastal environment illuminates the importance of early colonizers and the complexity of bacterial biofilm dynamics on marine plastics

Researchers used time-series incubations in a coastal marine environment to track plastisphere biofilm formation on microplastics, finding that early bacterial colonizers play a disproportionate role in shaping community dynamics and that biofilm composition is highly complex, varying with polymer type, incubation time, and surrounding environment.

2022 Environmental Pollution 28 citations
Article Tier 2

Dynamics and functions of microbial communities in the plastisphere in temperate coastal environments

Researchers explored microbial communities colonizing microplastics in coastal environments of Japan, comparing bacterial and fungal communities across different plastic types, water, sediment, and sand. The study found that while microbial communities varied by sample type and location rather than plastic shape, microplastics harbored hydrocarbon-degrading organisms as well as potential pathogens, highlighting the ecological significance of plastic-associated biofilms.

2024 Water Research 14 citations
Article Tier 2

Analysis of 16S rRNA amplicon data illuminates the major role of environment in determining the marine plastisphere microbial communities

Researchers analysed 16S rRNA amplicon data from marine plastisphere communities, finding that environmental factors play the dominant role in determining the microbial communities that colonise microplastic surfaces in marine ecosystems.

2024
Article Tier 2

Lacustrine plastisphere: Distinct succession and assembly processes of prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities and role of site, time, and polymer types

Researchers investigated how microbial communities colonize different types of microplastic polymers in freshwater lakes. The study found that bacteria and single-celled organisms follow distinct assembly patterns on microplastic surfaces, with colonization time, location, and polymer type all influencing community composition. These findings suggest microplastics serve as carriers that can promote microbial spread in aquatic environments.

2023 Water Research 36 citations
Article Tier 2

Short‐term plastisphere colonization dynamics across six plastic types

Researchers studied the short-term colonization dynamics of microbial communities (plastisphere) forming on six plastic polymer types submerged in marine waters in South Australia, finding polymer-type-specific differences in prokaryotic community composition over four weeks.

2023 Environmental Microbiology 21 citations
Article Tier 2

Edaphic Gradients Reshape Microbial Microenclaves Assembly within Plastispheres

Researchers sampled microplastics and surrounding soils at 27 urban wetland sites in China to study how bacteria colonize plastic surfaces, forming communities known as plastispheres. They found that plastispheres selectively recruit soil bacteria but harbor only 52-69% of the bacterial diversity found in adjacent soil. The study reveals that soil nutrient levels and moisture conditions strongly influence how these microplastic-associated microbial communities assemble.

2026 Environmental Science & Technology
Article Tier 2

Distinct microbial communities in the microplastisphere of inland wetlands: Diversity, composition, co-occurrence networks, and functions.

Researchers collected samples from different inland wetland types to characterize the microbial communities colonizing plastic surfaces (the microplastisphere), finding distinct bacterial and fungal communities compared to surrounding soils. Community composition varied by wetland type and plastic surface, highlighting the ecological diversity of plastic-associated microbiomes in freshwater habitats.

2025 Journal of hazardous materials
Article Tier 2

Structural and Functional Characteristics of Microplastic Associated Biofilms in Response to Temporal Dynamics and Polymer Types

Researchers found that biofilm structural and functional characteristics on microplastics differ significantly depending on polymer type (polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene) and change over time, with implications for understanding microbial colonization and the plastisphere.

2021 Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 41 citations
Article Tier 2

Time-dependent effects of microplastics on soil bacteriome

Researchers studied how six common types of microplastics affect soil bacteria over time at realistic contamination levels. The effects were slow to appear due to the chemical stability of plastics, but over time, microplastics altered bacterial community structure and soil functions in ways that differed by plastic type. This matters because changes to soil bacteria can affect nutrient cycling and crop health, with potential downstream effects on food quality.

2023 Journal of Hazardous Materials 87 citations
Article Tier 2

The “Plastisphere” of Biodegradable Plastics Is Characterized by Specific Microbial Taxa of Alpine and Arctic Soils

Microbial communities colonizing biodegradable plastics in soil (the plastisphere of biodegradable materials) were characterized and compared to communities on conventional non-biodegradable plastics and bulk soil. Biodegradable plastic surfaces hosted distinct microbial assemblages enriched in polymer-degrading taxa, showing that material type shapes the plastisphere community even for plastics designed to decompose.

2020 Frontiers in Environmental Science 127 citations
Article Tier 2

Dynamics of the plastisphere microbiome in agricultural soils under changing climatic conditions

Researchers monitored the microbial communities colonizing biodegradable (PBS, PBAT) and conventional polyethylene plastics buried in agricultural soils over one year under organic vs. conventional farming and current vs. projected climate conditions, finding that farming practice shaped the plastisphere microbiome more than climate, with early colonization dominated by genera known to degrade plastics.

2026 Journal of Hazardous Materials
Article Tier 2

Microbial Isolates in Microplastic-Polluted Soil

Researchers isolated and characterized microbial communities from microplastic-polluted soil, identifying bacteria capable of colonizing plastic surfaces and assessing their potential roles in plastic degradation and soil nutrient cycling.

2024 African Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Research
Article Tier 2

Environmental exposure more than plastic composition shapes marine microplastic‐associated bacterial communities in Pacific versus Caribbean field incubations

Researchers incubated six types of household plastic polymers in Pacific and Caribbean coastal waters to study the bacterial communities that form on microplastics. They found that geographic location and exposure time were far more important than plastic type in shaping these microbial communities. The study identified a core plastisphere of 57 bacterial variants common across all conditions, suggesting environmental context plays a bigger role than plastic composition in microplastic colonization.

2023 Environmental Microbiology 9 citations