Associate Professor Pan Ke's team from the Institute for Advanced Studies at Shenzhen University published a research paper titled "Eukaryotic community succession on discarded face masks in the marine environment" in the environmental science journal, Science of The Total Environment (impact factor: 10.754; ranked in CAS JCR Q1; TOP). The paper, with first authors Dr. Ma Jie and PhD student Chen Fengyuan (jointly trained by Shenzhen University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), and corresponding author Associate Professor Pan Ke, disclosed the eukaryotic community succession on discarded face masks in the marine environment. Shenzhen University was the first completion unit.

The research team analyzed the eukaryotic community of disposable medical masks in the marine environment over a period of 1 to 4 weeks. The results showed that the diversity, abundance, and composition of eukaryotes on the masks changed significantly over time. In general, the study suggests that discarded face masks can become the bases for eukaryotic survival and affect the succession process of eukaryotic communities in the marine environment. These findings highlight the need for greater attention to the environmental impact of discarded face masks and the implementation of measures for their proper disposal.

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42076148, 41976140), Science and Technology Innovation Commission of Shenzhen (JCYJ20180507182227257), Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2019A1515011630), Guangxi Key R&D Program of China (GUIKE AB20297018), and the Innovation Team Project of Universities in Guangdong Province (No. 2020KCXTD023).

The link to this publication:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969722056510?via%3Dihub