Ingested plastics in beach-washed Fairy Prions Pachyptila turtur from Tasmania

Lavers, Jennifer L.; Jersey, Alix M. de; Jones, Nina R.; Stewart, Lillian G.; Charlton-Howard, Hayley S.; Grant, Megan L.; Woehler, Eric J.

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.114096

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…However, these categories are not always consistently used across the literature and ‘micro‐plastics’ has been used to refer to objects anywhere between 1 μm to 20 mm in size (Frias & Nash, 2019). Overall, size is rarely reported in plastic ingestion studies and is generally only presented as summary statistics (Lavers et al., 2022; Semensatto et al., 2022). To reduce ambiguity and increase data quality particle size should be reported more explicitly, such as describing plastics using multiple parameters, and data distributions presented as well as summary statistics (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Overall, size is rarely reported in plastic ingestion studies and is generally only presented as summary statistics (Lavers et al, 2022;Semensatto et al, 2022). To reduce ambiguity and increase data quality particle size should be reported more explicitly, such as describing plastics using multiple parameters, and data distributions presented as well as summary statistics (e.g.…”

Section: Measuring Size and Shapementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The assessment of colour is particularly subjective; the apparent colour of an object will vary significantly depending on lighting and context and may be categorised differently by different people, which necessitates a relatively small number of colour categories for reproducibility. Several studies have highlighted the disadvantages of using non‐standardised methods for data collection and reporting, however, despite efforts to draw attention to this important issue, there continues to be poor uptake of recommended standards (Choi et al., 2021; Lavers et al., 2022). This has made it difficult to identify the impacts of plastic on vulnerable species, ecosystems, and the Earth as a whole (Avery‐Gomm et al., 2018; Villarrubia‐Gómez et al., 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Quantitative photography for rapid, reliable measurement of marine macro‐plastic pollution

Razzell Hollis,

Henderson,

Lavers

et al. 2023

Methods Ecol Evol

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Plastics are now ubiquitous in the environment and have been studied in wildlife and in ecosystems for more than 50 years. Measurement of size, shape and colour data for individual fragments of plastic is labour‐intensive, unreliable and prone to observer bias, particularly when it comes to assessment of colour, which relies on arbitrary and inconsistently defined colour categorisations. There is a clear need for a standard method for data collection on plastic pollution, particularly one that can be readily automated given the number of samples involved. This study describes a new method for standardised photography of marine plastics in the 1–100 mm size range (meso‐ and macro‐plastics), including colour correction to account for any image‐to‐image variation in lighting that may impact colour reproduction or apparent brightness. Automated image analysis is then applied to detect individual fragments of plastic for quantitative measurement of size, shape, and colour. The method was tested on 3793 fragments of debris ingested by Flesh‐footed Shearwaters (Ardenna carneipes) on Lord Howe Island, Australia, and compare results from photos taken in two separate locations using different equipment. Photos were acquired of up to 250 fragments at a time with a spatial resolution of 70 μm/pixel and were colour‐corrected using a reference chart to ensure accurate reproduction of colour. The automated image analysis pipeline was found to have a 98% success rate at detecting fragments, and the different size and shape parameters that can be outputted by the pipeline were compared in terms of usefulness. The evidence shown in this study should strongly encourage the uptake of this method for cataloguing macro‐scale plastic pollution, as it provides substantially higher quality data with accurate, reliable measurements of size, shape and colour for individual plastics that can be readily compared between disparate datasets.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Measuring Size and Shapementioning

confidence: 99%