Plastic and metal ingestion in three species of coastal waterfowl wintering in Atlantic Canada

English, Matthew D.; Robertson, Gregory J.; Avery‐Gomm, Stephanie; Pirie-Hay, Donald; Roul, Sheena; Ryan, Pierre C.; Wilhelm, Sabina I.; Mallory, Mark L.

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2015.05.063

Cited by 41 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Previous reports showing the presence of plastics in the guts of freshwater waterbirds are scarce and among the species analyzed the highest plastic prevalence has been found in seabirds (Provencher et al, 2015). However, English et al (2015) have discovered a high prevalence of plastic in Table 1 Presence of plastic debris in faeces of three waterfowl species collected in several lakes of Central Spain. Plastic remains have been classified in two types, fragments and threads, defined according to van Franeker et al, 2011.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Presence of plastic particles in waterbirds faeces collected in Spanish lakes

Gil‐Delgado

Guijarro

Gosálvez

et al. 2017

Environmental Pollution

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Plastic intake by marine vertebrates has been widely reported, but information about its presence in continental waterfowl is scarce. Here we analyzed faeces of waterbirds species (European coot, Fulica atra, mallard, Anas platyrhynchos and shelduck, Tadorna tadorna) for plastic debris in five wetlands in Central Spain. We collected 89 faeces of shelduck distributed in four lakes, 43.8% of them presented plastic remnants. Sixty percent of 10 faeces of European coot and 45% of 40 faeces of mallard contained plastic debris. Plastic debris found was of two types, threads and fragments, and were identified as remnants of plastic objects used in agricultural fields surrounding the lakes. Differences in prevalence of plastic in faeces, number of plastic pieces per excrement and size of the plastic pieces were not statistically significant between waterfowl species. Thus, our results suggest that plastic may also be frequently ingested by waterfowl in continental waters, at least in our study area. Future studies should address this potential problem for waterbird conservation in other wetlands to evaluate the real impact of this pollutant on waterbirds living in inland water.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Information about the incidence of remains of plastics in the stomach of waterfowl and other species living in wetlands is apparently lacking (Provencher et al, 2015;Wagner et al, 2014; but see English et al, 2015), despite plastic debris being also present in some wetlands. Microplastic and coal ash have been observed in the Lau…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Presence of plastic particles in waterbirds faeces collected in Spanish lakes

Gil‐Delgado

Guijarro

Gosálvez

et al. 2017

Environmental Pollution

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“…Several of these papers reported plastic ingestion in groups of species that were not sampled with plastic trophic studies in mind. For example, there are a number of papers that reported plastic ingestion via opportunistic sampling of seabirds (Avery-Gomm et al 2013;Codina-García et al 2013;English et al 2015;Holland et al 2016). While this type of reporting of plastic ingestion is important for understanding what species are vulnerable (Provencher et al 2017), this type of sampling is not conducive to examining questions related to trophic transfer because the time and locations of sampling can be disparate, and the species may not be directly connected in a food web.…”

Section: Species and Trophic Levels Examined For Plastic Ingestionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing plastic debris in aquatic food webs: what we know and don’t know about uptake and trophic transfer

et al. 2019

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Plastic pollution is now recognized as a global environmental issue that can affect the health of biota and ecosystems. Now that a growing number of species and taxa are known to ingest a diverse range of sizes and types of plastics and retain the plastics in their guts, there are increasing questions relating to the movement of plastics through food webs, and how biota may directly and indirectly ingest plastics. Here, we synthesize what is known from the published, peer-reviewed literature about plastic ingestion by animals and identify critical gaps in our knowledge. We systematically reviewed and examined the literature for studies that reported ingested plastics in marine and freshwater biota at a global scale. Our objective was to inform discussions and future studies regarding what we know about plastic ingestion and fate in food webs. We assessed what regions, ecosystems, and food webs have been studied to date and whether potential information may already be available to assess if trophic transfer of plastics may be occurring. We found 160 relevant publications through 2016. Most studies were concentrated in specific regions and in specific ecosystem types, with freshwater studies being the most limited. Moreover, most studies examined one species at a time with only a handful of regions with multiple taxa examined across multiple studies. Twenty-one percent of the regions have no published data on plastic ingestion to date. Although some studies have measured ingestion in multiple species across trophic levels, few have tested the hypothesis that plastics are transferred across trophic levels. Moreover, none have addressed questions related to biomagnification. While our review suggests that numerous papers have recorded the ingestion of plastics by biota across many trophic levels, habitats, and geographic regions, many questions regarding how or whether biota retain, bioaccumulate, biomagnify, and trophically transfer plastics still need to be addressed.

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“…Plastic fragmentation results in a continuum of debris sizes , leading to microscopic and even nanometric fragments (Gigault et al, 2016). Thus ingestion concerns both the larger animals, like cetaceans (Lusher et al, 2013;Lusher et al, 2015), turtles (Schuyler et al, 2012), sea birds (English et al, 2015;Ryan, 2015;Wilcox et al, 2015), and the smaller ones, like fishes (Collard et al, 2015); even zooplankton are concerned (Cole et al, 2013;. It has been demonstrated that plastic ingestion can significantly alter the feeding capacity and decrease the reproductive output of organisms .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anticyclonic eddies increase accumulation of microplastic in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre

Brach

Deixonne²,

Bernard³

et al. 2018

Marine Pollution Bulletin

126

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There are fundamental gaps in our understanding of the fates of microplastics in the ocean, which must be overcome if the severity of this pollution is to be fully assessed. The predominant pattern is high accumulation of microplastic in subtropical gyres. Using in situ measurements from the 7th Continent expedition in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre, data from satellite observations and models, we show how microplastic concentrations were up to 9.4 times higher in an anticyclonic eddy explored, compared to the cyclonic eddy. Although our sample size is small, this is the first suggestive evidence that mesoscale eddies might trap, concentrate and potentially transport microplastics. As eddies are known to congregate nutrients and organisms, this phenomenon should be considered with regards to the potential impact of plastic pollution on the ecosystem in the open ocean.

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Plastic and metal ingestion in three species of coastal waterfowl wintering in Atlantic Canada

Cited by 41 publications

References 23 publications

Presence of plastic particles in waterbirds faeces collected in Spanish lakes

Presence of plastic particles in waterbirds faeces collected in Spanish lakes

Assessing plastic debris in aquatic food webs: what we know and don’t know about uptake and trophic transfer

Anticyclonic eddies increase accumulation of microplastic in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre

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