Microbial community and dynamic changes of extracellular polymeric substances in relation to plastisphere of disposable surgical masks in natural aquatic environment

Ling ZHANG; Yuxin ZHOU; Zixian ZHU; Feifei YAN; Luxi TAN; Chunyan WEI; Zihao WANG; Qingfeng CHEN; Ying ZHANG

doi:10.1007/s00343-024-3229-3

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Microbial community and dynamic changes of extracellular polymeric substances in relation to plastisphere of disposable surgical masks in natural aquatic environment

Biofilm on micro- and nano-plastics | Updated：2025-03-21

- Microbial community and dynamic changes of extracellular polymeric substances in relation to plastisphere of disposable surgical masks in natural aquatic environment
- Microbial community and dynamic changes of extracellular polymeric substances in relation to plastisphere of disposable surgical masks in natural aquatic environment
- 海洋湖沼学报(英文) 2025年43卷第2期页码：502-514
- Affiliations：
  
  1.College of Geography and Environment, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250014, China
  2.College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China
- Author bio：
  
  chensdcn@163.com
  zy76031961@163.com
- Funds：
  
  the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province(ZR2022MD115;ZR202111160067)
- DOI：10.1007/s00343-024-3229-3
  中图分类号：
- 收稿：2023-10-28，
  
  网络首发：2024-02-05，
  
  纸质出版：2025-03-01
- Accepted：
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Microbial community and dynamic changes of extracellular polymeric substances in relation to plastisphere of disposable surgical masks in natural aquatic environment[J]. 海洋湖沼学报(英文), 2025,43(2):502-514.

ZHANG Ling,ZHOU Yuxin,ZHU Zixian,et al.Microbial community and dynamic changes of extracellular polymeric substances in relation to plastisphere of disposable surgical masks in natural aquatic environment[J].Journal of Oceanology and Limnology,2025,43(02):502-514.
Microbial community and dynamic changes of extracellular polymeric substances in relation to plastisphere of disposable surgical masks in natural aquatic environment[J]. 海洋湖沼学报(英文), 2025,43(2):502-514. DOI： 10.1007/s00343-024-3229-3.

ZHANG Ling,ZHOU Yuxin,ZHU Zixian,et al.Microbial community and dynamic changes of extracellular polymeric substances in relation to plastisphere of disposable surgical masks in natural aquatic environment[J].Journal of Oceanology and Limnology,2025,43(02):502-514. DOI： 10.1007/s00343-024-3229-3.

摘要

Abstract

In the context of global COVID-19 epidemic preparedness

the extensive use of disposable surgical masks (DSM) may lead to its emergence as a main new source of microplastics in the environment. Nowadays

DSMs have become a non-negligible source of plastic waste in aquatic environment

however

less research has been done on DSM after biofilm colonization in freshwater environment. The study investigated the microbial community of DSM-associated biofilms by 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Analysis of the microbial community in the middle and inner/outer layers of the DSM showed that the middle layer was different from the remaining two layers and that potential pathogens were enriched only in the middle layer of the DSM. Herein

we focused on the middle layer and explored the characterization properties and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) components changes during biofilm formation. The results showed that the EPS components varied with the biofilm incubation time. As the formation of biofilm

the protein (PN) and polysaccharide (PS) in EPS showed an overall increasing trend

and the growth of PS was well synchronized with PN. Three fluorescent components of EPS were determined by the three-dimensional excitation emission matrix (3D-EEM)

including humic acid-like

fulvic acid-like

and aromatic protein-like components. The percentage of fluorescent components varied with increasing biofilm development time and then stabilized. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) characterization results elucidated the emergence of oxygen-containing functional groups during biofilm formation. Moreover

the hydrophilicity increased with biofilm development. In conclusion

the environmental behavior and ecological risks of DSM in aquatic environment deserve urgent attention in future studies.

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references

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