TY - JOUR
T1 - Can the mass of plastic ingested by seabirds be predicted by the number of ingested items?
AU - Bond, Alexander L.
AU - Lavers, Jennifer L.
N1 - Funding Information:
See original publications for lists of funders, licenses, permits, and animal ethics approvals. Logistical support for work on Lord Howe Island was provided by the Australian Bird and Bat Banding Service and Lord Howe Island community, especially C. Woods, J. Gilligan, T. Adams, L. Brice, and J. & C. Shick. Assistance in the field was provided by generous volunteers, particularly P. Clive, the Two Hands Project (S. Stuckenbrock & P. Sharp) and members of the Adrift Lab team. Comments from the editor and anonymous reviewers improved earlier drafts.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors
PY - 2023/2/1
Y1 - 2023/2/1
N2 - Plastics pollution has been documented for decades, yet repeatable methods for evaluating quantities are lacking. For wildlife, the mass and number of ingested plastics are widely reported, but these are not without their challenges, especially in field settings. Rapid methods for estimating the mass of ingested plastic could therefore be useful, but the relationship with the number of ingested pieces has not been explored. Using a dataset covering 1278 individuals of 11 Procellariiform species, we investigated this relationship to determine if counts could act as a proxy for the mass of ingested plastic by seabirds. Larger species ingested larger pieces of plastic, and birds that consumed more pieces also ingested items that are physically larger. Across species, sample size significantly influenced the slope of the relationship between the mass and number of ingested plastics. The mass-number relationship is species-specific, highly driven by sample size, and varies temporally.
AB - Plastics pollution has been documented for decades, yet repeatable methods for evaluating quantities are lacking. For wildlife, the mass and number of ingested plastics are widely reported, but these are not without their challenges, especially in field settings. Rapid methods for estimating the mass of ingested plastic could therefore be useful, but the relationship with the number of ingested pieces has not been explored. Using a dataset covering 1278 individuals of 11 Procellariiform species, we investigated this relationship to determine if counts could act as a proxy for the mass of ingested plastic by seabirds. Larger species ingested larger pieces of plastic, and birds that consumed more pieces also ingested items that are physically larger. Across species, sample size significantly influenced the slope of the relationship between the mass and number of ingested plastics. The mass-number relationship is species-specific, highly driven by sample size, and varies temporally.
KW - Long-term monitoring
KW - Particle size
KW - Plastic pollution
KW - Procellariiformes
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85147226365
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85147226365#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.114673
DO - 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2023.114673
M3 - Article
C2 - 36736263
AN - SCOPUS:85147226365
SN - 0025-326X
VL - 188
JO - Marine Pollution Bulletin
JF - Marine Pollution Bulletin
M1 - 114673
ER -