Deep-sea anthropogenic macrodebris harbours rich and diverse communities of bacteria and archaea

PLoS One. 2018 Nov 28;13(11):e0206220. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0206220. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

The deep sea is the largest biome on earth, and microbes dominate in biomass and abundance. Anthropogenic litter is now almost ubiquitous in this biome, and its deposition creates new habitats and environments, including for microbial assemblages. With the ever increasing accumulation of this debris, it is timely to identify and describe the bacterial and archaeal communities that are able to form biofilms on macrodebris in the deep sea. Using 16S rRNA gene high throughput sequencing, we show for the first time the composition of bacteria and archaea on macrodebris collected from the deep sea. Our data suggest differences in the microbial assemblage composition across litter of different materials including metal, rubber, glass, fabric and plastic. These results imply that anthropogenic macrodebris provide diverse habitats for bacterial and archaeal biofilms and each may harbour distinct microbial communities.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Archaea / metabolism*
  • Atlantic Ocean
  • Bacteria / metabolism*
  • Biodiversity*
  • Biofilms
  • Geography
  • Geologic Sediments / microbiology
  • Human Activities*
  • Humans
  • Phylogeny
  • Seawater
  • Waste Products*

Substances

  • Waste Products

Grants and funding

Field work was support by ERC grant 278705 and Philip Leverhulme Prize (PLP-2012-088) to LFR, and all other aspects were funded by Natural History Museum DIF grant 14007 (LCW). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.