Beach wracks microbiome and its putative function in plastic polluted Mediterranean marine ecosystem.

ABSTRACT

The coasts of the world's oceans and seas accumulate various types of floating debris, commonly known as beach wracks, including organic seaweeds, seagrass, and ubiquitous anthropogenic waste, mainly plastic. Beach wrack microbiome (MB), surviving in the form of a biofilm, ensures decomposition and remineralization of wracks, but can also serve as a vector of potential pathogens in the environment. Through the interdisciplinary approach and comprehensive sampling design that includes geological analysis of the sediment, plastic debris composition analysis (ATR-FTIR) and application of 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding of beach wrack MBs, this study aims to describe MB in relation to beach exposure, sediment type and plastic pollution. Major contributors in beach wrack MB were Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria, Planctomycetes, Verrucomicrobia and Firmicutes and there was significant dissimilarity between sample groups with Vibrio, Cobetia and Planococcus shaping the Exposed beach sample group and Cyclobacteriaceae and Flavobacterium shaping the Sheltered beach sample group. Our results suggest plastisphere MB is mostly shaped by beach exposure, type of seagrass, sediment type and probably beach naturalness with heavy influence of seawater MB and shows no significant dissimilarity between MBs from a variety of microplastics (MP). Putative functional analysis of MB detected plastic degradation and potential human pathogen bacteria in both beach wrack and seawater MB. The research provides the next crucial step in beach wrack MP accumulation research, MB composition and functional investigation with focus on beach exposure as an important variable.