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

Environmental microplastic (MP) is ubiquitous in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems providing artificial habitats for microbes. Mechanisms of MP colonization, MP polymer impacts, and effects on soil microbiomes are largely unknown in terrestrial systems. Therefore, we experimentally tested the hypot...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental microbiology 2023-12, Vol.25 (12), p.2681-2697
Main Authors: Rohrbach, Stephan, Gkoutselis, Gerasimos, Hink, Linda, Weig, Alfons R., Obst, Martin, Diekmann, Astrid, Ho, Adrian, Rambold, Gerhard, Horn, Marcus A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aquatic ecosystems
Assembly
Biogeochemical cycle
Biogeochemical cycles
Community composition
Gene sequencing
Greenhouse gases
Landfills
Metabolism
Microbiomes
Microbiota - genetics
Microorganisms
Microplastics
Nucleotide sequence
Pathogens
PCR
Plastic debris
Plastic pollution
Plastics
Polymers
RNA, Ribosomal, 16S - genetics
rRNA 16S
Soil
Soil microorganisms
Soils
Stochasticity
Terrestrial ecosystems
Terrestrial environments
Underwater habitats
Waste disposal sites
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Summary:Environmental microplastic (MP) is ubiquitous in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems providing artificial habitats for microbes. Mechanisms of MP colonization, MP polymer impacts, and effects on soil microbiomes are largely unknown in terrestrial systems. Therefore, we experimentally tested the hypothesis that MP polymer type is an important deterministic factor affecting MP community assembly by incubating common MP polymer types in situ in landfill soil for 14 months. 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing indicated that MP polymers have specific impacts on plastisphere microbiomes, which are subsets of the soil microbiome. Chloroflexota, Gammaproteobacteria, certain Nitrososphaerota, and Nanoarchaeota explained differences among MP polymers and time points. Plastisphere microbial community composition derived from different MP diverged over time and was enriched in potential pathogens. PICRUSt predictions of pathway abundances and quantitative PCR of functional marker genes indicated that MP polymers exerted an ambivalent effect on genetic potentials of biogeochemical cycles. Overall, the data indicate that (i) polymer type as deterministic factor rather than stochastic factors drives plastisphere community assembly, (ii) MP impacts greenhouse gas metabolism, xenobiotic degradation and pathogen distribution, and (iii) MP serves as an ideal model system for studying fundamental questions in microbial ecology such as community assembly mechanisms in terrestrial environments.
ISSN:1462-2912
1462-2920
DOI:10.1111/1462-2920.16234