TY - JOUR
T1 - Pumice ingestion in seabirds
T2 - interannual variation, and relationships with chick growth and plastic ingestion
AU - Lavers, Jennifer L.
AU - Bond, Alexander L.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land and waters where this paper was written, the muwinina people of nipaluna (Hobart, Australia) and Wudjari people of Kepa Kurl (Esperance, Australia), and celebrate the role that Indigenous people have played as the first scientists and conservationists of this land. Samples were collected with the permission of the Lord Howe Island Board (permit no. LHIB 07/12, 02/14, and 07/18) and New South Wales Office of Environment & Heritage licence (no. SL100619 and SL102382). Logistical support 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. G. Henderson kindly provided the photos in Figure 1. Comments from three anonymous reviewers improved earlier drafts.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).
PY - 2023/3/29
Y1 - 2023/3/29
N2 - Many species of seabird ingest or are provisioned with pumice stones, buoyant volcanic rocks that are thought to aide in digestion, occasionally during times of poor prey availability. Unlike other indigestible matter, like plastics, the effect of pumice on chick growth, its relationship with ingested plastics, and variation among years has not yet been examined. We analysed the amount of ingested pumice from 739 Flesh-footed (Ardenna carneipes) and 173 Wedge-tailed Shearwaters (A. pacifica) from Lord Howe Island, Australia sampled using stomach lavage between 2011 and 2022. The total mass of ingested pumice was positively related to the mass of ingested plastics in Flesh-footed, but not Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, but not when using mean stone mass. Pumice mass did not vary over time, except for one higher year for each species (2016 for Flesh-footed Shearwaters and 2014 for Wedge-tailed Shearwaters), and there was no effect of pumice mass on chick body size at fledgling. Our results are consistent with the coexistence over geological time of seabirds and floating pumice, and future work should focus on aspects of retention in the digestive system and potential interactions with and efficacy in the presence of novel materials, like plastics.
AB - Many species of seabird ingest or are provisioned with pumice stones, buoyant volcanic rocks that are thought to aide in digestion, occasionally during times of poor prey availability. Unlike other indigestible matter, like plastics, the effect of pumice on chick growth, its relationship with ingested plastics, and variation among years has not yet been examined. We analysed the amount of ingested pumice from 739 Flesh-footed (Ardenna carneipes) and 173 Wedge-tailed Shearwaters (A. pacifica) from Lord Howe Island, Australia sampled using stomach lavage between 2011 and 2022. The total mass of ingested pumice was positively related to the mass of ingested plastics in Flesh-footed, but not Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, but not when using mean stone mass. Pumice mass did not vary over time, except for one higher year for each species (2016 for Flesh-footed Shearwaters and 2014 for Wedge-tailed Shearwaters), and there was no effect of pumice mass on chick body size at fledgling. Our results are consistent with the coexistence over geological time of seabirds and floating pumice, and future work should focus on aspects of retention in the digestive system and potential interactions with and efficacy in the presence of novel materials, like plastics.
KW - Gastrolith
KW - Gizzard stones
KW - Ingested debris
KW - Morphometrics
KW - Non-digestible items
KW - Plastic pollution
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85151421062
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85151421062#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.1007/s00227-023-04203-6
DO - 10.1007/s00227-023-04203-6
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85151421062
SN - 0025-3162
VL - 170
JO - Marine Biology
JF - Marine Biology
IS - 5
M1 - 55
ER -