Soil mesofauna alter the balance between stochastic and deterministic processes in the plastisphere during microbial succession

Abstract

Plastic debris, as a novel substrate, provides an avenue for enriching microbial growth. Although the structure of the aquatic plastisphere microbial community is well-characterised, linkages between microbial community assembly and species co-existence in the soil plastisphere vary and remain poorly understood, particularly when soil fauna is involved. This study investigated the soil plastisphere community, including bacteria, fungi, and protists, focusing on microbial succession and community assembly processes impacted by soil mesofauna. Certain soil plastisphere microbial taxa thrived at particular time points (e.g. Actinobacteria at 60 d), indicating the irreplaceable role of microplastic selection for time-sensitive taxa. Additionally, the biodiversity of keystone ecological clusters in the soil plastisphere was significantly associated with incubation time. Furthermore, the slopes of bacterial and fungal time-decay curves in soil plastisphere were steeper when treated with soil mesofauna than without soil mesofauna, whereas protist time-decay curves (total and abundant taxa) exhibited the opposite trend. Soil mesofauna increased the relative importance of determinacy in the soil plastisphere bacterial assembly process, while enhancing the stochasticity of fungal and protistan community assemblages. The study demonstrates the complex assembly patterns of soil plastisphere microbial communities, emphasising the importance of interactions between the plastisphere and local soil fauna from an ecological perspective.

Keywords: Community assembly; Ecological relationship; Microplastics; Network analysis; Soil biota.