Detection of microplastic particles in scats from different colonies of California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) in the Gulf of California, Mexico: A preliminary study

Ortega-Borchardt, José Ángel; Ramírez-Álvarez, Nancy; Mendoza, Lorena M. Rios; Gallo‐Reynoso, Juan Pablo; Barba‐Acuña, Isai David; Garcı́a-Hernández, Jaqueline; Égido-Villarreal, Janitzio; Kubenik, Trevor

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.114433

Cited by 11 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Impacts on Galapagos sea lions include cuts, entanglement, strangulation, suffocation, and intestinal obstruction [75]. Plastics are the primary debris type found in oceans affecting otariids [76][77][78][79] and are one of the main threats to Galapagos sea lions (Figure 4) [79,80]. This is due to the susceptibility of this species to biomagnification of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which can be absorbed and transported by microplastics [67,81].…”

Section: Endangered Species -Present Statusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Galapagos Pinnipeds, Challenges to Their Survival

Riofrío-Lazo,

Páez-Rosas

2023

Environmental Sciences

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Pinnipeds endemic to the Galapagos archipelago are in endangered conservation status. The Galapagos sea lion, Zalophus wollebaeki, and Galapagos fur seal, Arctocephalus galapagoensis, have adapted to an ecosystem with high environmental variability and unpredictable marine productivity to survive. In addition to the environmental factors that pressure their populations, these species are exposed to anthropogenic influence, mainly in rookeries on islands with human settlements. It has been determined that the populations of Galapagos pinnipeds have different growth trends between regions of the archipelago, islands of the same region, and between rookeries of the same island. 58% of the Galapagos sea lion population is in the southeastern, with the largest rookery in direct contact with the inhabitants. Various strategies have been proposed to reduce the negative impacts of human–animal interaction, ensure the population’s viability over time, and reduce the species’ extinction risk.

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Section: Endangered Species -Present Statusmentioning

confidence: 99%

Galapagos Pinnipeds, Challenges to Their Survival

Riofrío-Lazo,

Páez-Rosas

2023

Environmental Sciences

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“…Studies have found that if ingested, microplastics and associated toxins can lead to a number of negative reproductive, growth, health, and behavioral impacts (Derriak, 2002;Rochman et al, 2013Rochman et al, , 2014Lönnstedt and Eklöv, 2016;Coppock et al, 2019;Bucci et al, 2020). In the marine environment, an array of animals ingest microplastics, including fishes (Davison and Asch, 2011), seabirds (Van Franeker, 2011), bivalves (Phuong et al, 2018), marine turtles (Duncan et al, 2018), marine mammals (Nelms et al, 2019;Ortega-Borchardt et al, 2023), and zooplankton (reviewed in Botterell et al, 2019). Ecological effects of plastic pollution in the marine environment are less clear and not always detected (Bucci et al, 2020).…”

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confidence: 99%

Ingestion of microplastics by copepods in Tampa Bay Estuary, FL

et al. 2023

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Microplastics have been recognized as an emerging contaminant. Copepods are abundant primary consumers in marine food webs. Interactions between copepods and microplastics can lead to negative health effects to the individual and may have implications for populations and ecosystems through biomagnification. Laboratory and field studies have observed various species of zooplankton ingesting microplastics, however, this is the first study to observe microplastic-copepod interactions in Tampa Bay. Over 2 years (November 2017-January 2020), 14 sampling cruises were conducted with seven stations throughout Tampa Bay. At each station copepods were collected by towing a 200 μm mesh ring net (0.5 m diameter) for 3 min. 1,000 individual Acartia tonsa copepods were picked from each sample and digested to release gut contents. Gut contents were stained in a Nile Red solution and then visualized using epifluorescent microscopy, quantified, photographed and sized using image analysis. In Tampa Bay, A. tonsa consumed fragments over fibers, ranging from 0.018 to 0.642 mm, with an average particle size of 0.076 mm. An overall average of 15.38 particles were ingested per 1,000 copepods, or 6.48 particles m–3 when normalized for environmental copepod concentrations. While significant differences were detected between stations and months, no clear spatial (from head to mouth of estuary) or temporal (between wet and dry seasons) trends in ingestion rate or ingested particle size were evident. These results show that A. tonsa ingested microplastics throughout Tampa Bay. These robust baseline data, for a copepod species that dominates estuarine zooplankton communities around the world, set the stage for valuable comparisons between estuaries with different physical mechanisms and levels of anthropogenic impact, allowing for exploration of how the environmental conditions impact ecological interactions.

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