Homogenization of bacterial plastisphere community in soil: a continental-scale microcosm study.

ABSTRACT: Microplastics alter niches of soil microbiota by providing trillions of artificial microhabitats, termed the "plastisphere." Because of the ever-increasing accumulation of microplastics in ecosystems, it is urgent to understand the ecology of microbes associated with the plastisphere. Here, we present a continental-scale study of the bacterial plastisphere on polyethylene microplastics compared with adjacent soil communities across 99 sites collected from across China through microcosm experiments. In comparison with the soil bacterial communities, we found that plastispheres had a greater proportion of Actinomycetota and Bacillota, but lower proportions of Pseudomonadota, Acidobacteriota, Gemmatimonadota, and Bacteroidota. The spatial dispersion a

SUBMITTER: Sun Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10848224 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature