Exploring the long-term effect of plastic on compost microbiome

Little is known about the ecology of microbial plastic degradation. In this study, we employed next generation amplicon sequencing to assess the effect of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) films on the structure of bacterial and fungal communities in four mature compost piles with age ranging between 2 and 10 years. While, bacterial Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Actinobacteria and fungi Ascomycota were most abundant across all facilities, our data indicated significant differences in compost microbiomes between compost facilities, which might be related to compost chemical parameters, age of piles and characteristics of the feedstock. In addition, a substantial shift in the interaction pattern within microbial communities from bulk and plastic-associated (PA) compost was detected. For example, cooperation between Firmicutes Bacillaceae and Thermoactinomycetaceae was detected only in PA compost. However, based on the analysis of the diversity indices and the relative abundances of microbial taxa we can conclude that the presence of plastics in compost had no significant effect on the structure of microbial community.