Plastic Waste and Plastisphere Microorganisms
A Special Issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607) belonging to the section "Environmental Microbiology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2027 | Viewed by 94
Editor
Interests: wastes anaerobic fermentation; bioenergy recovery; biological processes; wastes conversion and biological treatment; wastewater treatment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Plastic waste pollution, including microplastics and nanoplastics, has become a pervasive global environmental challenge, posing severe threats to aquatic, terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Worse still, plastic debris often interacts with heavy metals, organic pollutants, and other contaminants, forming a complex type of pollution that exacerbates ecological risks.
The plastisphere, a unique microbial habitat formed by communities colonizing plastic debris (including microplastics and nanoplastics), has emerged as a core research area in microbial ecology and environmental microbiology. The significance of research into plastisphere microorganisms and their intricate interactions with plastic waste, microplastics, nanoplastics, plasticizers, and associated composite pollutants cannot be emphasized enough.
In this Special Issue, we invite the submission of papers focusing on the following themes: profiling the diversity, composition and functional traits of plastisphere microbial communities on different plastic types (including micro/nanoplastics); unraveling the molecular and enzymatic mechanisms underlying microbial degradation of plastics, micro/nanoplastics and plasticizers; evaluating the bioremediation potential of plastisphere microbes in degrading plastic waste and mitigating composite pollution; and assessing the ecological impacts and potential health risks of plastisphere microorganisms in the context of micro/nanoplastics, plasticizers and composite pollution, including their role in antibiotic resistance gene dissemination.
Such studies will contribute significantly to our understanding of microbe–plastic interactions, the development of eco-friendly plastic pollution control strategies, the advancement of environmental microbiology knowledge, and the protection of global ecosystems and public health. We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Dr. Xin Zhao
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Microorganisms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- plastic waste
- plastisphere
- plastic degradation
- micro/nanoplastics
- plasticizer
- microbial diversity
- bioremediation
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