A comprehensive pan-European exploration of fungal plastisphere dynamics along river-to-sea continuums
Abstract
Microplastics (MPs) provide persistent substrates facilitating microbial transport across ecosystems. Since most marine plastic debris originates from land and are transported through rivers, a key concern is the dispersal of freshwater fungi into marine environments. Here, we characterized fungal communities colonizing MPs and immersed pristine microplastics (pMPs), as well as those in the surrounding waters, along the river-to-sea continuum in nine major European rivers during the Tara Microplastics expedition. DNA metabarcoding of the V9 region of the 18S rRNA gene showed fungi representing 4.6% of the total sequence reads and 6.2% of total richness among microeukaryotes, ranking in the top five microeukaryotic groups. Distinct fungal communities on MPs and pMPs compared to surrounding waters highlight clear differentiation between plastic-associated and ambient fungi in both marine and freshwater systems. Artificially immersed pMPs (1 month) resembled ambient water communities more than floating MPs. The latter exhibited high variability in fungal composition, suggesting complex and heterogeneous colonization patterns along the river-to-sea continuum. We also revealed a clear gradient in fungal community structure from freshwater to marine environments, with strong but incomplete segregation of plastisphere composition. Putative pathogenic fungi appeared enriched on MPs exclusively in freshwater, supporting limited transfer of these taxa toward marine-influenced environments.
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BibTeX
@article{burgaud2026comprehensive,
title = {{A comprehensive pan-European exploration of fungal plastisphere dynamics along river-to-sea continuums}},
author = {Gaëtan Burgaud and Nicolas Henry and Erwan Corre and Mireille Pujo-Pay and Pascal Conan and Marion Hingant and Anne-Leila Meistertzheim and Valérie Barbe and Ika Paul-Pont and Alexandra ter Halle and Boris Eyheraguibel and Wolfgang Ludwig and Mikael Kedzierski and Jean-François Briand and Raffaele Siano and Mathisse Meyneng and Cécile Lepère and Jean-François Ghiglione},
journal = {Journal of Hazardous Materials},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/j.jhazmat.2026.142613},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05672387v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - A comprehensive pan-European exploration of fungal plastisphere dynamics along river-to-sea continuums
AU - Gaëtan Burgaud
AU - Nicolas Henry
AU - Erwan Corre
AU - Mireille Pujo-Pay
AU - Pascal Conan
AU - Marion Hingant
AU - Anne-Leila Meistertzheim
AU - Valérie Barbe
AU - Ika Paul-Pont
AU - Alexandra ter Halle
AU - Boris Eyheraguibel
AU - Wolfgang Ludwig
AU - Mikael Kedzierski
AU - Jean-François Briand
AU - Raffaele Siano
AU - Mathisse Meyneng
AU - Cécile Lepère
AU - Jean-François Ghiglione
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/29
JO - Journal of Hazardous Materials
DO - 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2026.142613
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05672387v1
AB - Microplastics (MPs) provide persistent substrates facilitating microbial transport across ecosystems. Since most marine plastic debris originates from land and are transported through rivers, a key concern is the dispersal of freshwater fungi into marine environments. Here, we characterized fungal communities colonizing MPs and immersed pristine microplastics (pMPs), as well as those in the surrounding waters, along the river-to-sea continuum in nine major European rivers during the Tara Microplastics expedition. DNA metabarcoding of the V9 region of the 18S rRNA gene showed fungi representing 4.6% of the total sequence reads and 6.2% of total richness among microeukaryotes, ranking in the top five microeukaryotic groups. Distinct fungal communities on MPs and pMPs compared to surrounding waters highlight clear differentiation between plastic-associated and ambient fungi in both marine and freshwater systems. Artificially immersed pMPs (1 month) resembled ambient water communities more than floating MPs. The latter exhibited high variability in fungal composition, suggesting complex and heterogeneous colonization patterns along the river-to-sea continuum. We also revealed a clear gradient in fungal community structure from freshwater to marine environments, with strong but incomplete segregation of plastisphere composition. Putative pathogenic fungi appeared enriched on MPs exclusively in freshwater, supporting limited transfer of these taxa toward marine-influenced environments.
SN - 0304-3894
SN - 1873-3336
ER -