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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Aquatic Microbiology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1502825

Weak effects of conventional and biodegradable microplastics on marine microbial communities

Provisionally accepted
Ulises Lora Ulises Lora 1*Luca Schenone Luca Schenone 2Irene Forn Irene Forn 1Francesc Peters Francesc Peters 1Jonna Piiparinen Jonna Piiparinen 3Hermanni Kaartokallio Hermanni Kaartokallio 3Maiju Lehtiniemi Maiju Lehtiniemi 3Maria Montserrat Sala Maria Montserrat Sala 1*
  • 1 Institute of Marine Sciences, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Barcelona, Spain
  • 2 Institute for Research in Biodiversity and the Environment, National University of Comahue, Bariloche, Río Negro, Argentina
  • 3 Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE), Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Microplastics are ubiquitous in marine ecosystems and are suitable matrices for bacterial attachment and growth. Studies on the microbes growing on plastics are mainly done using flow cytometry and massive sequencing, which do not allow for the quantification of specific groups and their activity. Here we present the results from a mesocosm experiment, designed to compare the effects of biodegradable and conventional microplastics on planktonic communities of the Baltic Sea. Our specific aim was to study the effects on bacterial activity and abundance using epifluorescence microscopy techniques. Specifically, we applied BONCAT-FISH which simultaneously allows for phylogenetic identification and the detection of the activity of individual bacterial cells. In our experiment, mesocosms were filled with Baltic brackish seawater and amended with 20 microplastic beads•ml -1 in triplicates for several treatments: (i) None (control), (ii) PS, (iii) PLGA and (iv) PS + PLGA. Our results show a low impact of the presence and quality of microplastics on marine bacterial communities during the first 11 days of exposure, with only weak differences in the activity of bacteri al communities growing with biodegradable or conventional microplastics additions.

    Keywords: Microplastics, CARD-FISH, BONCAT, Mesocosm experiment, Conventional Plastic, Biodegradable plastic

    Received: 27 Sep 2024; Accepted: 25 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Lora, Schenone, Forn, Peters, Piiparinen, Kaartokallio, Lehtiniemi and Sala. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Ulises Lora, Institute of Marine Sciences, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Barcelona, Spain
    Maria Montserrat Sala, Institute of Marine Sciences, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Barcelona, Spain

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.