BACTERIAL AND FUNGAL SPECIES ASSOCIATED WITH PLASTIC - DISTURBED SOIL

ABSTRACT Evaluating plastic disturbed soils elicits microbiological and biochemical patterns occasioned by the pollutant. Plastic is a recalcitrant and currently a public concern as it seeps into water bodies when broken. The aim was to assess the type of microbes and their identification using standard microbiological and biochemical standard. Soil samples were collected from different sites including plastic-disturbed soils from Eket (2), Ibeno (1), and Ikot Akpaden (1), as well as a control soil from the Botany Garden of Akwa Ibom State University. Total heterotrophic bacterial count showed a high count in Sample E (control soil from Botany Garden) at 1.59 × 10⁸ cfu/g and lowest in Sample A (plastic-disturbed soil) at 3.15 × 10⁷ cfu/g .Total heterotrophic fungal count was highest in Sample A (6.0 × 10⁶ cfu/g) and lowest in both samples C and D (1.0 × 10⁶ cfu/g each). Bacterial characterization showed the presence of Bacillus sp., Pseudomonas sp., Streptomyces sp., Micrococcus sp., Acinetobacter sp., and Klebsiella sp., Enterococcus sp. from the plastic-disturbed soil while fungal isolates included Aspergillus sp., Rhizopus sp., Penicillium sp., Tricoderma sp., and Fusarium sp. Enzyme activity assays demonstrated that Bacillus sp., Pseudomonas sp., Streptomyces sp., and Nocardia sp. exhibited strong lipase and protease activities. This indicates that plastic-contaminated soils habours microbial species which might be capable of plastic degradation. High enzymatic activities by these microbes suggests their efficient and adaptive potential in plastic waste breakdown. These results emphasize the need for integrating microbial bioremediation techniques into waste management strategies which could offer a sustainable approach to mitigating plastic pollution.