The Plastisphere of the Mondego River, Estuary and adjacent beaches

he aim of this study was to analyse the contribution of river-sea flow on microbiological communities associated with microplastics and their potential as vectors of propagation, as well as to profile bacterial communities by identifying key bacterial groups in microplastics collected at different water salinity levels (freshwater, brackish water and seawater) and at three different levels of coastal disturbance (pristine, urbanised and estuarine-influenced, and industrial).