The bacterial communities on surface water plastics and filtered surface water from the Pacific Ocean.

Between May and July of 2019, the German research vessel SONNE traversed the North Pacific Ocean from Vancouver to Singapore. Surface plastic particles were collected along this transect and their biofilms sampled for whole community analysis. Background water samples were also collected, first filtered through a 3 micron filter to capture the particle-associated community and then through a 0.22 micron filter to capture the free-living community.