Impacts of Marine Plastic Debris (MPD) on marine ecosystems are among the most critical environmental concerns of the past three decades. Virgin plastic is often cheaper to manufacture than recycled plastics, increasing rates of plastic released into the environment and thereby impacting ecosystem health and functioning. Along with other environmental effects, MPD can serve as a vector for marine hitchhikers, facilitating unwanted organisms’ transport and subsequent spread. Consequently, there is a growing demand for more eco-friendly replacements of conventional plastic polymers, ideally with fit-for-purpose properties and a well-understood life cycle. We enriched polybutylene succinate (PBS) with three different concentrations of oyster shell to investigate the dynamics of biofouling formation over 18 weeks at the Nelson Marina, Aotearoa/New Zealand. Our study focused on oyster shell concentration as a determinant of fouling assemblages over time. While generally considered as a waste in the aquaculture sector, we used oyster shells as a variable of interest to investigate their potential for both, environmental and economic benefits. Using bacterial 16S and eukaryotic 18S rRNA gene metabarcoding, our results revealed that following immersion in seawater, time played a more critical role than substrate type in driving biofouling community structures over the study period. In total, 33 putative non-indigenous species (NIS) and 41 bacterial families with putative plastic-degrading capability were detected on the different substrates. Our analysis of NIS recruitment revealed a lower contribution of NIS on shell-enriched substrates than unadulterated polymers samples. In contrast, the different concentrations of oyster shells did not affect the specific recruitment of bacterial degraders. Taken together, our results suggest that bio-based polymers and composites with increased potential for biodegradability, recyclability, and aptitude for the selective recruitment of marine invertebrates might offer a sustainable alternative to conventional polymers, assisting to mitigate the numerous impacts associated with MPD.

海洋塑料碎片 (MPD) 对海洋生态系统的影响是过去三年来最严重的环境问题之一。原生塑料的制造成本通常比再生塑料便宜，从而增加了塑料释放到环境中的速度，从而影响生态系统的健康和功能。与其他环境影响一起，MPD 可以作为海洋搭便车者的载体，促​​进有害生物的运输和随后的传播。因此，对传统塑料聚合物的更环保替代品的需求不断增长，理想情况下具有适合用途的特性和易于理解的生命周期。我们用三种不同浓度的牡蛎壳富集聚丁二酸丁二醇酯 (PBS)，以研究 18 周内纳尔逊码头生物污垢形成的动态，奥特罗阿/新西兰。我们的研究侧重于牡蛎壳浓度作为污垢组合随时间推移的决定因素。虽然在水产养殖部门通常被认为是一种废物，但我们使用牡蛎壳作为感兴趣的变量来研究它们在环境和经济效益方面的潜力。使用细菌 16S 和真核生物 18S rRNA 基因元条形码，我们的结果表明，在研究期间，在海水中浸泡后，时间在驱动生物污损群落结构方面发挥的作用比底物类型更重要。总共在不同的基质上检测到 33 个推定的非本土物种 (NIS) 和 41 个具有推定塑料降解能力的细菌科。我们对 NIS 招募的分析表明，NIS 对富含壳的底物的贡献低于未掺杂的聚合物样品。相比之下，不同浓度的牡蛎壳并不影响细菌降解剂的特异性募集。总之，我们的研究结果表明，生物基聚合物和复合材料具有更高的生物降解性、可回收性和选择性招募海洋无脊椎动物的能力，可能为传统聚合物提供可持续的替代品，有助于减轻与 MPD 相关的众多影响。