Marine biodegradation of plastic films by Alcanivorax under various ambient temperatures: Bacterial enrichment, morphology alteration, and release of degradation products.

Autor: Zhang Y; Northern Region Persistent Organic Pollution Control (NRPOP) Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University, St. John's, NL A1B 3X5, Canada., Cao Y; Northern Region Persistent Organic Pollution Control (NRPOP) Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University, St. John's, NL A1B 3X5, Canada. Electronic address: yiqic@mun.ca., Chen B; Northern Region Persistent Organic Pollution Control (NRPOP) Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University, St. John's, NL A1B 3X5, Canada., Dong G; Northern Region Persistent Organic Pollution Control (NRPOP) Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University, St. John's, NL A1B 3X5, Canada., Zhao Y; MOE Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Systems Optimization, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China., Zhang B; Northern Region Persistent Organic Pollution Control (NRPOP) Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University, St. John's, NL A1B 3X5, Canada. Electronic address: bzhang@mun.ca.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2024 Mar 20; Vol. 917, pp. 170527. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jan 28.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170527
Abstrakt: The global ocean has been receiving massive amounts of plastic wastes. Marine biodegradation, influenced by global climate, naturally breaks down these wastes. In this study, we systematically compared the biodegradation performance of petroleum- and bio-based plastic films, i.e., low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polylactic acid (PLA), and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) under three ambient temperatures (4, 15, and 22 °C). We deployed the our previously isolated cold-tolerant plastic-degrading Alcanivorax to simulate the accelerated marine biodegradation process and evaluated the alteration of bacterial growth, plastic films, and released degradation products. Notably, we found that marine biodegradation of PHA films enriched more bacterial amounts, induced more conspicuous morphological damage, and released more microplastics (MPs) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) under all temperatures compared to LDPE and PLA. Particularly, MPs were released from film edges and cracks with a mean size of 2.8 μm under all temperatures. In addition, the degradation products released by biodegradation of PHA under 22 °C induced the highest acute toxicity to Vibrio fischeri. Our results highlighted that: (1) marine biodegradation of plastics would release millions of MPs per cm 2 exposed surface area even in cold environments within 60 days; (2) different marine biodegradation scenarios of these plastics may raise disparate impacts and mitigation-related studies.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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