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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Max Kelly, Dr Paul Whitworth, Dr Alan Jamieson, Professor Grant Burgess
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2022 The AuthorsPlastic pollution has now been found within multiple ecosystems across the globe. Characterisation of microbial assemblages associated with marine plastic, or the so-called ‘plastisphere’, has focused predominantly on plastic in the epipelagic zone. Whether this community includes taxa that are consistently enriched on plastic compared to surrounding non plastic surfaces is unresolved, as are the ecological implications. The deep sea is likely a final sink for most of the plastic entering the ocean, yet there is limited information on microbial colonisation of plastic at depth. The aim of this study was to investigate deep-sea microbial communities associated with polystyrene (PS) and polyurethane (PU) with Bath stone used as a control. The substrates (n = 15) were deployed in the Rockall Trough (Atlantic), and recovered 420 days later from a depth of 1796 m. To characterise the bacterial communities, 16S rRNA genes were sequenced using the Illumina MiSeq platform. A dominant core microbiome (taxa shared across all substrates) comprised 8% of total ASVs (amplicon sequence variant) and accounted for 92% of the total community reads. This suggests that many commonly reported members of the plastisphere are simply opportunistic which freely colonise any hard surface. Transiently associated species consisted of approximately 7% of the total community. Thirty genera were enriched on plastic (P < 0.05), representing 1% of the total community. The discovery of novel deep-sea enriched taxa included Aurantivirga, Algivirga, IheB3-7, Spirosoma, HTCC5015, Ekhidna and Calorithrix on PS and Candidatus Obscuribacter, Haloferula, Marine Methylotrophic Group 3, Aliivibrio, Tibeticola and Dethiosulfatarculus on PU. This small fraction of the microbiome include taxa with unique metabolic abilities and show how bacterial communities can be shaped by plastic pollution at depth. This study outlines a novel approach in categorising the plastisphere to elucidate the ecological implications of enriched taxa that show an affinity for colonising plastic.
Author(s): Kelly MR, Whitworth P, Jamieson A, Burgess JG
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Environmental Pollution
Year: 2022
Volume: 305
Print publication date: 15/07/2022
Online publication date: 18/04/2022
Acceptance date: 13/04/2022
Date deposited: 01/06/2022
ISSN (print): 0269-7491
ISSN (electronic): 1873-6424
Publisher: Elsevier Ltd
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119314
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119314
PubMed id: 35447252
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