ORCID

0009-0000-4184-9340 (Joern), 0000-0001-8281-3184 (Bochdansky)

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

DOI

10.3389/fmars.2025.1581727

Publication Title

Frontiers in Marine Science

Volume

12

Pages

1581727 (1-17)

Abstract

Marine plastic pollution poses a significant and escalating threat to ocean ecosystems, with microbial colonization on plastics playing a critical role in determining their environmental fate. Despite the recognized importance of microbial biofilms, their composition, dynamics, and functional contributions on buoyant plastics remain poorly understood. In this study, we leveraged a novel integrative approach by simultaneously employing 16S, 18S, and ITS sequencing alongside microscopy, lipidomics, pigment analysis, adenosine triphosphate and biogenic silica quantification. This comprehensive methodology allowed for a thorough characterization of microbial growth and community dynamics on plastic debris in a mid-latitude, tidal sub-estuary. Our analyses consistently identified diatoms, due to their silica shells, as the sole ballast-bearing microorganisms within the biofilm. By examining the accumulation of biogenic silica on plastic surfaces, we evaluated the potential role of microbial biofilms in influencing plastic sinking behavior in the water column. Our findings indicate that the production of microbial ballast material alone is insufficient to significantly alter the buoyancy of most buoyant plastics larger than 15 or 40 μm (depending on shape) under nutrient-rich, undisturbed conditions. These results suggest that additional processes, such as metazoan colonization or sediment accumulation, are likely necessary to transport larger buoyant plastics to deeper waters.

Rights

© 2025 Joern, Pedrosa-Pàmies, Jiang, Liu and Bochdansky.

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original authors and the copyright owners 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.

Data Availability

Article states: "The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/Supplementary Material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author/s."

Original Publication Citation

Joern, G. M., Pedrosa-Pàmies, R., Jiang, X., Liu, Z., & Bochdansky, A. B. (2025). Characterization of microbial biofilms on marine plastics: Community development and density implications for vertical transport dynamics. Frontiers in Marine Science, 12, 1-17, Article 1581727. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2025.1581727

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