The colonization of bacterial communities and biofilm formation on microplastics (MPs) have aroused great concern recently. However, the influence of time and polymer types on the structural and functional characteristics of biofilms remains unclear. In this study, three types of MPs (polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene) were exposed for different time periods (10, 20 and 30 days) in seawater using a microcosm experiment. Microscopic spectroscopy and high-throughput gene sequencing techniques were used to reveal the temporal changes of structural and functional characteristics of MPs associated biofilms. The results indicate that the biofilm formation is affected by both the incubation time and the polymer type. In addition, bacterial diversity and community structure in the biofilms show selectivity towards seawater, and tend to shift over time and among different polymer types. Moreover, biofilms are shown to harbor plastic degrading bacteria, leading to the changes of functional groups and surface hydrophobicity, and thereby enhancing the biodegradation of MPs.

最近，微塑料（MPs）上细菌群落的定殖和生物膜的形成引起了人们的极大关注。然而，时间和聚合物类型对生物膜结构和功能特性的影响仍不清楚。在这项研究中，使用微观实验将三种类型的 MP（聚乙烯、聚丙烯和聚苯乙烯）暴露在海水中不同的时间段（10、20 和 30 天）。显微光谱学和高通量基因测序技术被用来揭示 MPs 相关生物膜的结构和功能特征的时间变化。结果表明，生物膜的形成受孵育时间和聚合物类型的影响。此外，生物膜中的细菌多样性和群落结构显示出对海水的选择性，并且往往会随着时间的推移在不同的聚合物类型之间发生变化。此外，生物膜显示出含有降解塑料的细菌，导致官能团和表面疏水性的变化，从而增强 MP 的生物降解。