Microplastics in the ocean function as an artificial microbial reef, with diverse communities of eukaryotic and bacterial microbiota colonizing its surface. It is not well understood if these communities are specific for the type of microplastic on which they develop. Here, we carried out a 6‐week long incubation experiment of six common plastic polymers in Bocas del Toro, Panama. The community composition of prokaryotes based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing data, when judged under a null model analysis, shows that neither plastic polymer type nor time exposed to the environment plays a significant role in shaping biofilm communities. However, the null model analyses of eukaryotic communities based on 18S rRNA gene sequences reveal that they can be significantly influenced by plastic polymer type and time incubated. This was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy, which allowed us to distinguish plastic‐specific diatom communities by the end of the incubation period.

中文翻译：

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微生物在加勒比海的微生物定殖

海洋中的微塑料起着人工微生物礁的作用，其表面遍布着各种真核生物和细菌微生物群落。这些社区是否对它们在其上发育的微塑料类型具有特异性尚不清楚。在这里，我们在巴拿马的Bocas del Toro对6种常见的塑料聚合物进行了为期6周的孵育实验。根据无效模型分析判断，基于16S rRNA基因测序数据的原核生物的群落组成表明，塑性聚合物类型和暴露于环境的时间均未对生物膜群落的形成起重要作用。然而，基于18S rRNA基因序列的真核生物群落的空模型分析表明，它们可能受到塑料聚合物类型和孵育时间的显着影响。