Ingestion of plastic marine litter by sea turtles in southern Brazil: abundance, characteristics and potential selectivity

Rizzi, Milena; Rodrigues, Fábio Lameiro; Medeiros, Luciana dos Santos; Ortega, Ileana; Rodrigues, Lucas dos Santos; Monteiro, Danielle; Kessler, Felipe; Proietti, Maí­ra Carneiro

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.01.054

Cited by 94 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…However, under environmentally relevant exposures, the numbers of microplastic particles residing in the gastrointestinal tract of fish and invertebrates reported in the literature are not generally considered harmful (Kaposi et al 2014; Devriese et al 2015; Mazurais et al 2015; Alomar et al 2017; Ory et al 2018b; Roman et al 2019). It should be noted, however, that harmful effects, particularly in sea turtles and sea birds, in relation to the ingestion of macroplastics are well documented, and have resulted in death (Day 1980; Reid 1981; Balaz 1985; Plotkin and Amos 1990; Thompson 2015; Acampora et al 2016; Rizzi et al 2019). When all the data reporting particle concentrations were considered, the average concentration of microplastic particles across all the field‐based studies for all species included in the present review was found to be 4 particles/individual, as illustrated in Figure 7A, with actual average numbers showing significant variation, ranging from 0 to 122 particles/individual (standard deviation = 11).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward an Improved Understanding of the Ingestion and Trophic Transfer of Microplastic Particles: Critical Review and Implications for Future Research

Gouin

2020

Enviro Toxic and Chemistry

136

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Microplastic particles have been observed in the environment and routinely detected in the stomachs and intestines of aquatic organisms over the last 50 yr. In the present review, information on the ingestion of plastic debris of varying sizes is collated, including data for >800 species representing approximately 87 000 individual organisms, for which plastic debris and microplastic particles have been observed in approximately 17 500, or 20%. The average reported number of microplastic particles/individual across all studies is estimated to be 4, with studies typically reporting averages ranging from 0 to 10 particles/individual. A general observation is that although strong evidence exists for the biological ingestion of microplastic particles, they do not bioaccumulate and do not appear to be subject to biomagnification as a result of trophic transfer through food webs, with >99% of observations from field‐based studies reporting that microplastic particles are located within the gastrointestinal tract. Overall, there is substantial heterogeneity in how samples are collected, processed, analyzed, and reported, causing significant challenges in attempting to assess temporal and spatial trends or helping to inform a mechanistic understanding. Nevertheless, several studies suggest that the characteristics of microplastic particles ingested by organisms are generally representative of plastic debris in the vicinity where individuals are collected. Monitoring of spatial and temporal trends of ingested microplastic particles could thus potentially be useful in assessing mitigation efforts aimed at reducing the emission of plastic and microplastic particles to the environment. The development and application of standardized analytical methods are urgently needed to better understand spatial and temporal trends. Environ Toxicol Chem 2020;39:1119–1137. © 2020 The Authors. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of SETAC.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Toward an Improved Understanding of the Ingestion and Trophic Transfer of Microplastic Particles: Critical Review and Implications for Future Research

Gouin

2020

Enviro Toxic and Chemistry

136

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“…Larger debris (macroplastics, >5 mm) affect mainly big pelagic and benthic marine organisms, such as sea turtles, seabirds, fish and cetaceans [22]. In Brazil, 15–40% of the examined stranded seabirds and 57–100% of sea turtles contained varying quantities of large debris in their stomachs, mostly consisting of plastic fragments [25,26,27]. In addition, smaller particles (microplastics, <5 mm, and nanoplastics, <0.1 µm) currently outnumber larger debris.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ostreopsis cf. ovata Bloom in Currais, Brazil: Phylogeny, Toxin Profile and Contamination of Mussels and Marine Plastic Litter

Tibiriçá

Leite

Batista

et al. 2019

Toxins

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Ostreopsis cf. ovata is a toxic marine benthic dinoflagellate responsible for harmful blooms affecting ecosystem and human health, mostly in the Mediterranean Sea. In this study we report the occurrence of a summer O. cf. ovata bloom in Currais, a coastal archipelago located on the subtropical Brazilian coast (~25° S). This bloom was very similar to Mediterranean episodes in many aspects: (a) field-sampled and cultivated O. cf. ovata cells aligned phylogenetically (ITS and LSU regions) along with Mediterranean strains; (b) the bloom occurred at increasing temperature and irradiance, and decreasing wind speed; (c) cell densities reached up to 8.0 × 104 cell cm−2 on fiberglass screen and 5.6 × 105 cell g−1 fresh weight on seaweeds; (d) and toxin profiles were composed mostly of ovatoxin-a (58%) and ovatoxin-b (32%), up to 35.5 pg PLTX-eq. cell−1 in total. Mussels were contaminated during the bloom with unsafe toxin levels (up to 131 µg PLTX-eq. kg−1). Ostreopsis cells attached to different plastic litter, indicating an alternate route for toxin transfer to marine fauna via ingestion of biofilm-coated plastic debris.

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“…Plastic ingestion by seabirds has been recorded from the 1960s onwards (Threlfall 1968;Kenyon and Kridler 1969), and an increasing body of publications proves that plastic and the ingestion of it by marine megafauna occur over all the world's oceans (Provencher et al 2017). In recent years, research quantifying the abundance of plastics in organisms (frequency of occurrence, average number and sometimes average mass of plastic items) has been complemented by investigations of polymer types and related chemical burdens (Tanaka et al 2013;Tanaka et al 2019;Rizzi et al 2019;Nelms et al 2019;Avio et al 2020). This development is related to the technical progress in analytical methods such as infrared and mass spectroscopy and to the focus on smallsized plastics that require advanced identification techniques.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several earlier studies (e.g. Yamashita et al 2011;Amélineau et al 2016;Avery-Gomm et al 2016;Pham et al 2017;Tanaka et al 2019;Rizzi et al 2019) provided some information, but on the larger scale, the identification of plastic polymers in marine megafauna is still relatively scarce. Data on the composition of polymer types is needed to evaluate potential toxic consequences of plastic ingestion because different plastic types contain different types of additives, leaching behaviour and degradation products (Lithner et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polymer types ingested by northern fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) and southern hemisphere relatives

Kühn¹,

Oyen

Rebolledo

et al. 2020

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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Although ingestion of plastic by tubenosed seabirds has been documented regularly, identification of the polymer composition of these plastics has rarely been described. Polymer assessment may assist in identifying sources and may indicate risks from additives occurring in specific types of polymers. Using known test materials, two identification methods Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and near infrared spectroscopy (FTIR and NIR) were compared. Although both methods were found to be similarly suitable for identification of plastic polymers, a significant difference was observed in identification of natural materials. FTIR frequently misclassified natural materials as being a synthetic polymer. Within our results, an 80% match score threshold functioned best to distinguish between natural items and synthetics. Using NIR, the historical variability of plastics ingested by northern fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) from the Dutch sector of the North Sea was analysed for three time periods since the 1980s. For the more recent decade, variability between fulmars from different regions in the northeast Atlantic was investigated. Regional variation was further explored by analysing plastics obtained from the stomachs of southern hemisphere relatives of the fulmar (southern fulmar, cape petrel, snow petrel) and Wilson's storm petrel. Results show that proportional abundance of polymer types in these seabirds is closely related to the plastic categories that they ingest (e.g. pellets, foam, fragments). The uptake of different plastic categories and related polymer types most likely reflects spatial and temporal variations in availability rather than ingestion preferences of the birds.

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Ingestion of plastic marine litter by sea turtles in southern Brazil: abundance, characteristics and potential selectivity

Cited by 94 publications

References 60 publications

Toward an Improved Understanding of the Ingestion and Trophic Transfer of Microplastic Particles: Critical Review and Implications for Future Research

Toward an Improved Understanding of the Ingestion and Trophic Transfer of Microplastic Particles: Critical Review and Implications for Future Research

Ostreopsis cf. ovata Bloom in Currais, Brazil: Phylogeny, Toxin Profile and Contamination of Mussels and Marine Plastic Litter

Polymer types ingested by northern fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) and southern hemisphere relatives

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