Plastisphere in an Antarctic environment: A Microcosm Approach ...

• Main Author: Monràs Riera, Pere
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Mendeley Data 2024
• Subjects: Plastics; Colonization; Antarc*; Antarctic; Antarctica; Livingston Island; South Shetland Islands; Southern Ocean
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17632/747grvg49y.1; https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/747grvg49y/1

Illumina 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing from microplastics and quartz samples from a microcosm experiment in Antarctic conditions. Microplastics are ubiquitously present, even in remote regions like the Southern Ocean. Once in the water, they are rapidly colonised by marine microorganisms, forming what is known as the plastisphere. To address this issue in Antarctic waters, we conducted a microcosm experiment. We incubated microplastic pellets (2 to 5 mm nominal granule size) made of polypropylene, polyethylene, polystyrene, and quartz fragments in separate aquarium compartments in triplicate for 33 days in Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. We analysed the colonisation process and the plastisphere dynamics in polar environmental conditions using scanning electron microscopy, flow cytometry, bacterial cultivation, qPCR, and 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding. Our results indicate that while colonisation occurs rapidly and consistently, biomass formation is slightly slower than in other oceanic ...