Temporal Succession Patterns of Wetland Soil Microorganisms under Microplastic Pollution

Microplastics (MPs), as emerging environmental pollutants, have attracted widespread attention in recent years, particularly due to their potential impacts on wetland ecosystems. Wetland ecosystems provide habitats for a wide range of aquatic and terrestrial organisms, and the input of microplastics can exert profound effects on their microbial communities. Nevertheless, current research on the interactions between microplastics and wetland soil microbial communities is still insufficient. In this study, based on 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing, samples were collected from the Yellow River estuarine wetland in Dongying City. A microcosm experiment was conducted with three time points (45, 90, and 135 days) and three types of MPs to explore the effects of microplastics on wetland microbial communities.