Nests of the brown booby ( Sula leucogaster ) as a potential indicator of tropical ocean pollution by marine debris

Tavares, Davi Castro; Costa, Leonardo Lopes; Rangel, Danilo Freitas; Moura, Jailson Fulgêncio de; Zalmon, Ilana Rosental; Siciliano, Salvatore

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2016.06.005

Cited by 75 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…The nests of the other seabirds were without plastics, even though Miranda‐Urbina et al () documented the presence of plastics in one nest of P. rubricauda (Table ). It has also been reported that species from the family Sulidae, like the northern gannet ( Morus bassanus ; Votier, Archibald, Morgan, & Morgan, ) and the brown booby ( Sula leucogaster ; Tavares et al, ) are selecting and transporting marine litter to construct their nests. As observed in northern gannets (Votier et al, ), direct mortality of adults and chicks, as a consequence of entanglement with litter accumulated in the nests, has not yet been observed in MMH.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Marine protected areas invaded by floating anthropogenic litter: An example from the South Pacific

Luna‐Jorquera

Thiel

Portflitt‐Toro

et al. 2019

Aquatic Conservation

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Oceanic marine protected areas (MPAs) that are close to the litter accumulation zones in the subtropical gyres receive large amounts of plastic litter, both as micro‐ and as macroplastics. The macro‐litter accumulating on the islands in the Easter Island Ecoregion (Rapa Nui and Salas y Gómez) can be traced back to the high seas industrial fishery operating in the South Pacific. Seabirds nesting in the MPAs in the South Pacific are affected by both microplastic ingestion and macroplastic in their nests, but there was no evidence of entangled birds. Conservation of seabirds (and other species) in these oceanic MPAs requires efficient measures to reduce plastic contamination in the ocean. Observations made in the South Pacific coincide with those from other oceanic MPAs, calling for global actions.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been suggested that the amounts and types of AML transported by seabirds to their nest are related to the items available within the vicinity of the breeding colony (Tavares et al, ). If the amounts of AML entering the ocean continue to increase, the amounts of plastic incorporated by seabirds in the nests will also rise.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marine protected areas invaded by floating anthropogenic litter: An example from the South Pacific

Luna‐Jorquera

Thiel

Portflitt‐Toro

et al. 2019

Aquatic Conservation

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“…Positive and negative values imply in upwelling and downwelling, respectively [53]. The environmental variables were extracted for circular buffers of 30 km in diameter, which reflect the habitats used by the examined seabird species (Fig 1) [5, 46, 48]. In addition, the recoveries of drifting corpses are markedly reduced when these objects are released at distances greater than 30 km from the shore of the studied region [54].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, to monitor at-sea densities is expensive and logistically challenging, making this unsuitable for developing countries such as Brazil. However, the seabirds species examined herein are more abundant and forage within 20 km from breeding sites, where they aggregate to reproduce and forage throughout the year [3, 5, 46, 56, 65, 66]. Thus, we used the linear distance between the nearest breeding island and the centre of surveyed transects as a metric for seabird at-sea abundance, i.e., the level of exposure of these organisms to local potential causes of death (i.e.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Environmental Predictors of Seabird Wrecks in a Tropical Coastal Area

2016

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Beached bird surveys have been widely used to monitor the impact of oil pollution in the oceans. However, separating the combined effects of oil pollution, environmental variables and methodological aspects of beach monitoring on seabird stranding patterns is a challenging task. The effects of a comprehensive set of oceanographic and climatic variables and oil pollution on seabird strandings in a tropical area of Brazil were investigated herein, using two robust and innovative methods: Generalized Linear Mixed Models and Structural Equation Modeling. We assessed strandings of four resident seabird species along 480 km of beaches divided into 11 sampling areas, between November 2010 and September 2013. We found that increasing the distance from the nearest breeding island reduce the seabird stranding events. Storm activity and biological productivity were the most important factors affecting the stranding events of brown boobies Sula leucogaster, Cabot’s terns Thalasseus acuflavidus and kelp gulls Larus dominicanus. These species are also indirectly affected by warm tropical waters, which reduce chlorophyll-a concentrations. Beach surveys are, thus, useful to investigate the mortality rates of resident species near breeding sites, where individuals are more abundant and exposed to local factors associated with at-sea mortality. In contrast, conservation actions and monitoring programs for far-ranging seabird species are needed in more distant foraging areas. Furthermore, beach monitoring programs investigating the impact of oil pollution on seabirds need to account for the effects of environmental factors on stranding patterns. The present study also demonstrated that seabirds inhabiting tropical coastal waters are sensitive to climate conditions such as adverse weather, which are expected to increase in frequency and intensity in next decades.

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