A study of wrecked Dovekies (Alle alle) in the western North Atlantic highlights the importance of using standardized methods to quantify plastic ingestion

Avery‐Gomm, Stephanie; Valliant, Michelle; Schacter, Carley R.; Robbins, Katherine F.; Liboiron, Max; Daoust, Pierre‐Yves; Rios, Lorena M.; Jones, Ian L.

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.08.062

Cited by 42 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…While simply reporting plastics within a diet study was once sufficient, the growing interest in marine plastics and their impacts, and purpose-driven publications on plastic accumulation in marine biota now demand a higher standard. Standards for reporting data are required to make studies comparable 84 and to provide data suitable for statistically rigorous meta-analyses. These standards should include consistent reporting of the collection and sampling method, type of debris, the mass, the number, the colour, and the characteristics of the material, as well as the method of sorting and identifying materials.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One of our objectives was to outline a standardized set of methods for measuring and reporting accumulated plastics in marine megafauna to help shape future studies of ingested plastics, contribute to our global understanding of marine pollution, and facilitate easier comparisons among studies, regions, and species. 84 With this is mind, we make several recommendations here that are specic to seabirds, but useful for all taxonomic groups where ingested pollution is studied. To this end, standardized methods and metrics should be used across all studies.…”

Section: Recommendations For Plastic Ingestion Studies In Marine Megamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Quantifying ingested debris in marine megafauna: a review and recommendations for standardization

et al. 2017

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Recommendations For Plastic Ingestion Studies In Marine Megamentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying ingested debris in marine megafauna: a review and recommendations for standardization

et al. 2017

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“…28 In another example, ingestion studies on the same species of animal are not comparable if they fail to mention which part of the gastrointestinal tract was analyzed (e.g., just the gizzard or the gizzard and proventriculus of birds). 15,17 Moreover, a study using different chemical digestion methods to measure ingestion may be incomparable because some digestion procedures destroy certain plastics. 29 Regardless of diverse methods and wherever possible, reporting raw - or less processed - data would allow reverse engineering and harmonization of some techniques.…”

Section: The Reproducibility and Comparability Turning Point In Micromentioning

confidence: 99%

Reporting Guidelines to Increase the Reproducibility and Comparability of Research on Microplastics

et al. 2020

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The ubiquitous pollution of the environment with microplastics, a diverse suite of contaminants, is of growing concern for science and currently receives considerable public, political, and academic attention. The potential impact of microplastics in the environment has prompted a great deal of research in recent years. Many diverse methods have been developed to answer different questions about microplastic pollution, from sources, transport, and fate in the environment, and about effects on humans and wildlife. These methods are often insufficiently described, making studies neither comparable nor reproducible. The proliferation of new microplastic investigations and cross-study syntheses to answer larger scale questions are hampered. This diverse group of 23 researchers think these issues can begin to be overcome through the adoption of a set of reporting guidelines. This collaboration was created using an open science framework that we detail for future use. Here, we suggest harmonized reporting guidelines for microplastic studies in environmental and laboratory settings through all steps of a typical study, including best practices for reporting materials, quality assurance/quality control, data, field sampling, sample preparation, microplastic identification, microplastic categorization, microplastic quantification, and considerations for toxicology studies. We developed three easy to use documents, a detailed document, a checklist, and a mind map, that can be used to reference the reporting guidelines quickly. We intend that these reporting guidelines support the annotation, dissemination, interpretation, reviewing, and synthesis of microplastic research. Through open access licensing (CC BY 4.0), these documents aim to increase the validity, reproducibility, and comparability of studies in this field for the benefit of the global community.

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“…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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A study of wrecked Dovekies (Alle alle) in the western North Atlantic highlights the importance of using standardized methods to quantify plastic ingestion

Cited by 42 publications

References 39 publications

Quantifying ingested debris in marine megafauna: a review and recommendations for standardization

Quantifying ingested debris in marine megafauna: a review and recommendations for standardization

Reporting Guidelines to Increase the Reproducibility and Comparability of Research on Microplastics

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

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