Unraveling the coastal marine plastisphere archaeome
- Changchao Li
- Yijing Wang
- Albert Shing King Zhou
- Xi Pan
- Yanjie Zhu
- Xiaohua Zhang
- Tian Chen
- Anqi Xiong
- Yuen-Wa Ho
- Jian Liu
- Zhichao Zhou
- Jie Wang
- Tanveer M. Adyel
- James Kar-Hei Fang
- Michael S. Bank
- Matthias C. Rillig
- Ling N. Jin
2026-08-14
Plastic pollution has created an expanding anthropogenic microbial niche, the plastisphere, raising questions about microbial ecology and associated impacts. Archaea, the third domain of life with fundamental ecological and evolutionary significance, remain poorly understood in this habitat. Here, using paired plastic debris and bulk-water samples from coastal marine ecosystems, key archaeal habitats increasingly threatened by plastic pollution, we characterize the plastisphere archaeome through archaeal amplicon sequencing and metagenomics. We show that the archaeome is significantly reshaped in the plastisphere, exhibiting higher taxonomic diversity, greater community heterogeneity, and selective enrichment of Euryarchaeota and Crenarchaeota. Archaeal genes involved in methane, nitrogen, and sulfur cycling are enriched in the plastisphere. Taxonomic and functional divergence between the plastisphere and bulk water increases with anthropogenic chemical stress. These findings suggest that plastic pollution could alter marine archaeal diversity, biogeography, and biogeochemical potential, extending understanding of plastisphere impacts to the archaeal domain.