Abstract：
Although accumulating evidence indicates that endangered animals suffer from plastic pollution, this has been largely overlooked. Here, we explored the bacteria and eukaryotes living in the plastics gathered from the natural habitat of the highly endangered crocodile lizard. The results demonstrated that the bacterial and eukaryotic communities on plastics formed a unique ecosystem that exhibited lower diversity than those in the surrounding water and soil. However, microbes displayed a more complex and stable network on plastic than that in water or soil, implying unique mechanisms of stabilization. These mechanisms enhanced their resilience and contributed to the provision of stable ecological services. Eukaryotes formed a simpler and smaller network than bacteria, indicating different survival strategies. The bacteria residing on the plastics played a significant role in carbon transformation and sequestration, which likely impacted carbon cycling in the habitat. Furthermore, microbial exchange between plastics and the crocodile lizard was observed, suggesting that plastisphere serves as a mobile gene bank for the exchange of information, including potentially harmful substances. Overall, microbes on plastic appear to significantly impact the crocodile lizard and its natural habitat via various pathways. These results provided novel insights into risks evaluation of plastic pollution and valuable guidance for government efforts in plastic pollutant control in nature reserves.
摘要：
尽管越来越多的证据表明濒临灭绝的动物遭受塑料污染，这在很大程度上被忽视了。这里,我们探索了生活在塑料中的细菌和真核生物，这些塑料是从高度濒危的鳄鱼蜥蜴的自然栖息地收集的。结果表明，塑料上的细菌和真核生物群落形成了一个独特的生态系统，其多样性低于周围水和土壤中的多样性。然而,微生物在塑料上比在水或土壤中表现出更复杂和稳定的网络，暗示了独特的稳定机制。这些机制增强了它们的复原力，并有助于提供稳定的生态服务。真核生物形成了比细菌更简单、更小的网络，表明不同的生存策略。驻留在塑料上的细菌在碳转化和封存中起着重要作用，这可能会影响栖息地的碳循环。此外，观察到塑料和鳄鱼蜥蜴之间的微生物交换，这表明质体作为信息交换的移动基因库，包括潜在的有害物质。总的来说,塑料上的微生物似乎通过各种途径显着影响鳄鱼蜥蜴及其自然栖息地。这些结果为塑料污染的风险评估提供了新的见解，并为政府在自然保护区中控制塑料污染物的努力提供了宝贵的指导。
