Plastic debris pervades in our oceans and freshwater systems and the potential ecosystem-level impacts of this anthropogenic litter require urgent evaluation. Microbes readily colonize aquatic plastic debris and members of these biofilm communities are speculated to include pathogenic, toxic, invasive or plastic degrading-species. The influence of plastic-colonizing microorganisms on the fate of plastic debris is largely unknown, as is the role of plastic in selecting for unique microbial communities. This work aimed to characterize microbial biofilm communities colonizing single-use poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) drinking bottles, determine their plastic-specificity in contrast with seawater and glass-colonizing communities, and identify seasonal and geographical influences on the communities. A substrate recruitment experiment was established in which PET bottles were deployed for 5–6 weeks at three stations in the North Sea in three different seasons. The structure and composition of the PET-colonizing bacterial/archaeal and eukaryotic communities varied with season and station. Abundant PET-colonizing taxa belonged to the phylum Bacteroidetes (e.g. Flavobacteriaceae, Cryomorphaceae, Saprospiraceae—all known to degrade complex carbon substrates) and diatoms (e.g. Coscinodiscophytina, Bacillariophytina). The PET-colonizing microbial communities differed significantly from free-living communities, but from particle-associated (>3 μm) communities or those inhabiting glass substrates. These data suggest that microbial community assembly on plastics is driven by conventional marine biofilm processes, with the plastic surface serving as raft for attachment, rather than selecting for recruitment of plastic-specific microbial colonizers. A small proportion of taxa, notably, members of the Cryomorphaceae and Alcanivoraceae, were significantly discriminant of PET but not glass surfaces, conjuring the possibility that these groups may directly interact with the PET substrate. Future research is required to investigate microscale functional interactions at the plastic surface.
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull HU6 7RX, United Kingdom;School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool Lincoln LN6 7TS, United Kingdom;Environmental Microbiology Working Group, Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research, Warnemünde, Germany;Department of Biological Sciences, University of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull HU6 7RX, United Kingdom;School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool Lincoln LN6 7TS, United Kingdom;School of Applied Sciences, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, PO Box 77, Bundoora, VIC3083, Australia;Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States of America
Recommended Citation:
Sonja Oberbeckmann,A. Mark Osborn,Melissa B. Duhaime. Microbes on a Bottle: Substrate, Season and Geography Influence Community Composition of Microbes Colonizing Marine Plastic Debris[J]. PLOS ONE,2016-01-01,11(8)