Published March 25, 2025 | Version v1
Dataset Open

Data from: The temperate seagrass species Cymodocea nodosa and the associated bacteria co-response to sunscreen pollution

Description

Sunscreens are included among the contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) as their production and use have spread over years while damaging aquatic biota. Sunscreens can damage the photosynthetic systems and change the microbiome of seagrasses, triggering alterations in carbon metabolism –including primary production and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) fluxes– and ecological functions. Here, we conducted a 31-day mesocosm experiment exposing Cymodocea nodosa plants to a mixture of commercial sunscreens. Sunscreens produced a significant reduction on net production rates, switching the system from autotrophic to heterotrophic, which was ascribable to an increase in heterotrophic bacteria families (some known to degrade complex substrates) and, more importantly, to a significant reduction of photosynthetic pigments in plants. Moreover, a significant release of DOC at night attributed to exudation from disrupted roots was recorded, which accounted for the observed increase in bacteria abundance and family richness recorded in the phyllosphere. A higher accumulation of starch in rhizomes suggests a certain degree of resistance of this species. However, we observed a trend to reduce some protective bacteria taxa, whereas promoted the growth of other pathogenic ones for seagrasses, along with other taxa related with the consumption of plant-derived polysaccharides and lignin compounds. Therefore, our results indicated that this CEC may reduce the contribution of seagrasses to the blue carbon pool, among others ecosystem services, and suggest a possible prompt of seagrass diseases if stressing conditions are maintained over time.

Notes

This study received Spanish national funds from project RECOUNT (PID2020-120237RJ-I00/AEI/10.13039/5011000 11033; PI, RJR); SERCADY [FEDER-UCA18- 107451; PI, LGE] and CREMAR [FEDER-UCA18-106672; PI, ARR], both co-financed by the European Union under the 2014-2020 ERDF Operational Programme and by the Department of Economic Transformation, Industry, Knowledge, and Universities of the Regional Government of Andalusia. The study was also supported by the iBesblue Spanish national project (PID2021-123597OB-I00) and the Spanish grant CNS2022-135160 funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and European Union NextGeneration EU/PRTR. MIV was supported by a FPU fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Universities. EBCH postdoctoral contract was funded by the SERCADY project.

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Additional details

Related works

Is cited by
Journal: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2025.107115 (DOI)

Dates

Accepted
2025-03-25