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Peer-reviewedCC BY-NC-ND 4.0NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes

From the Atlantic to the Mediterranean: what factors shape diatom diversity in the plastisphere

  • Abel Barré1
  • Véronique Lenoble2
  • Ana Luzia Lacerda3,4
  • Maria Luiza Pedrotti3
  • Raffaella Casotti5
  • Carola Murano5,6
  • Vincenzo Donnarumma7,8
  • Soledad Muniategui-Lorenzo9
  • José M. Andrade-Garda9
  • Verónica Fernández-González9
  • Carmen Moscoso-Pérez9
  • Felipe Kessler10
6 more authors
  • Róisín Nash11
  • Fanny Aulanier1
  • Raphaëlle Barry-Martinet1
  • Marc Bouchoucha12
  • João Frias11
  • Jean-François Briand1
12 affiliations
  1. 1Université de Toulon, MAPIEM, Toulon, France
  2. 2Université de Toulon, Aix Marseille Univ., CNRS, IRD, MIO, Toulon, France
  3. 3Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche sur mer (LOV), CNRS UMR 7093, Sorbonne Université, Villefranche sur Mer, France
  4. 4Littoral, Environnement et Sociétés (LIENSs), UMR 7266, CNRS, La Rochelle Université, La Rochelle, France
  5. 5Department of Integrative Marine Ecology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Naples, Italy
  6. 6National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC), Palermo, Italy
  7. 7Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita e dell’Ambiente, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy
  8. 8Istituto di Scienze Marine–Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (ISMAR-CNR), Lerici, Italy
  9. 9University of A Coruña, Grupo Química Analítica Aplicada (QANAP), Instituto Universitario de Medio Ambiente (IUMA), A Coruña, Spain
  10. 10University of Rio Grande (FURG), Laboratório de Química e Alimentos (EQA), Campus Carreiros, Rio Grande, Brazil
  11. 11Marine & Freshwater Research Centre, Atlantic Technological University, Galway, Ireland
  12. 12Ifremer COAST, La Seyne Sur Mer, France
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Abstract

Plastic substrates are ubiquitously colonized by complex microbiomes, referred to as the plastisphere. Diatoms, despite being considered the main autotrophic taxa and key early colonizers involved in biofilms, currently remain poorly studied compared to other microbes plastic pieces were immersed in coastal systems at six locations across five countries in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Spatial and seasonal dynamics of plastic-attached diatom communities were investigated by incubating polyethylene (HDPE) at all sites for 84 days. Temporal dynamics at each season were also investigated using HDPE, polypropylene, and polystyrene in Toulon only (North-Western Mediterranean Sea). Using amplicon sequencing of the rbcL gene, geographic location appears to be the primary driver of diatom diversity, followed by season and incubation time, with intra-site variations always smaller than those between sites. Intra-site variations were mostly due to relative abundance changes, while inter-site variations corresponded to shifts between species. Biofilms from the Atlantic shared neither species nor ASVs, whereas biofilms from the Mediterranean shared 5 species and 5% of reads. Pioneer taxa changed depending on the season, while mature taxa tended to converge irrespective of the season. Finally, the nature of conventional plastics plays a minor role in shaping the diatom community, as shown previously for heterotrophs in the plastisphere. Overall, the shaping of diatom communities in biofilms could be observed at different taxonomic levels, down to the genetic variant, highlighting the extent to which genetic divergence occurs. Finally, potential ecological consequences of diatom presence and diversity in the plastisphere are discussed.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{barre2026from,
  title = {{From the Atlantic to the Mediterranean: what factors shape diatom diversity in the plastisphere}},
  author = {Abel Barré and Véronique Lenoble and Ana Luzia Lacerda and Maria Luiza Pedrotti and Raffaella Casotti and Carola Murano and Vincenzo Donnarumma and Soledad Muniategui-Lorenzo and José M. Andrade-Garda and Verónica Fernández-González and Carmen Moscoso-Pérez and Felipe Kessler and Róisín Nash and Fanny Aulanier and Raphaëlle Barry-Martinet and Marc Bouchoucha and João Frias and Jean-François Briand},
  journal = {NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes},
  year = {2026},
  month = jul,
  doi = {10.1038/s41522-026-01060-1},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41522-026-01060-1},
  note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - From the Atlantic to the Mediterranean: what factors shape diatom diversity in the plastisphere
AU  - Abel Barré
AU  - Véronique Lenoble
AU  - Ana Luzia Lacerda
AU  - Maria Luiza Pedrotti
AU  - Raffaella Casotti
AU  - Carola Murano
AU  - Vincenzo Donnarumma
AU  - Soledad Muniategui-Lorenzo
AU  - José M. Andrade-Garda
AU  - Verónica Fernández-González
AU  - Carmen Moscoso-Pérez
AU  - Felipe Kessler
AU  - Róisín Nash
AU  - Fanny Aulanier
AU  - Raphaëlle Barry-Martinet
AU  - Marc Bouchoucha
AU  - João Frias
AU  - Jean-François Briand
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/07/15
JO  - NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes
DO  - 10.1038/s41522-026-01060-1
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41522-026-01060-1
AB  - Plastic substrates are ubiquitously colonized by complex microbiomes, referred to as the plastisphere. Diatoms, despite being considered the main autotrophic taxa and key early colonizers involved in biofilms, currently remain poorly studied compared to other microbes plastic pieces were immersed in coastal systems at six locations across five countries in the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Spatial and seasonal dynamics of plastic-attached diatom communities were investigated by incubating polyethylene (HDPE) at all sites for 84 days. Temporal dynamics at each season were also investigated using HDPE, polypropylene, and polystyrene in Toulon only (North-Western Mediterranean Sea). Using amplicon sequencing of the rbcL gene, geographic location appears to be the primary driver of diatom diversity, followed by season and incubation time, with intra-site variations always smaller than those between sites. Intra-site variations were mostly due to relative abundance changes, while inter-site variations corresponded to shifts between species. Biofilms from the Atlantic shared neither species nor ASVs, whereas biofilms from the Mediterranean shared 5 species and 5% of reads. Pioneer taxa changed depending on the season, while mature taxa tended to converge irrespective of the season. Finally, the nature of conventional plastics plays a minor role in shaping the diatom community, as shown previously for heterotrophs in the plastisphere. Overall, the shaping of diatom communities in biofilms could be observed at different taxonomic levels, down to the genetic variant, highlighting the extent to which genetic divergence occurs. Finally, potential ecological consequences of diatom presence and diversity in the plastisphere are discussed.
SN  - 2055-5008
ER  -