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

Abstract

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.

Birds of a Feather Eat Plastic Together: High Levels of Plastic Ingestion in Great Shearwater Adults and Juveniles Across Their Annual Migratory Cycle

“…The percentage of industrial plastics within this sample set (mean = 9%) was equal to or lower than the percentage of industrial plastics reported in previous studies in seabirds and specifically Great Shearwaters (Figure 2; Moser and Lee, 1992;Ryan, 2008;Bond et al, 2014;Van Franeker and Law, 2015;Avery-Gomm et al, 2017;Kühn et al, 2020). The reduced incidence of industrial plastics is likely related to decrease of industrial pellets in marine environments due to source reduction efforts over time (Van Franeker and Law, 2015).…”

Métodos para Avaliação da Exposição a Poluentes Plásticos em Procellariiformes: Revisão e Padronização de Protocolos

“…conteúdo gastrointestinal Mallory et al, 2008;Colabuono et al, 2009;Tourinho et al, 2010;Gray et al, 2012;Codina-Garcia et al, 2013;Bond et al, 2014;Jimenez et al, 2015;Acampora et al, 2016;Herzke et al, 2016;Poon et al, 2017;Petry & Benemann, 2017;Ryan, 2008Ryan, , 2016Roman et al, 2016Roman et al, , 2019Hyrenbach et al, 2017;Provencher et al, 2009, 2014, 2018b, van Franeker et al, 2011Tavares et al, 2017;Avery-Gomm et al, 2018;Lavers et al, 2019;Avery-Gomm, 2020;Baak et al, 2020;Padula et al, 2020;Kühn, 2020;Bourdages et al, 2021;Hamilton et al, 2021;Kühn et al, 2021. DOI: 10.37002/biobrasil.v11i3.1829 Métodos para Avaliação da Exposição a Poluentes Plásticos em Procellariiformes: Revisão e Padronização de Protocolos…”

“…conteúdo gastrointestinal Mallory et al, 2008;Provencher et al, 2009;Gray et al, 2012;Codina-Garcia et al, 2013;Bond et al, 2014;Acampora et al, 2016;Avery-Gomm et al, 2016Tavares et al, 2017;Baak et al, 2020;Yorio et al, 2020;Kühn, 2020;Bourdages et al, 2021;Hamilton et al, 2021;Kühn et al, 2021. Lusher et al, 2015, 2018.…”

First Documentation of Plastic Ingestion in the Arctic Glaucous Gull (Larus Hyperboreus)

“…Although no data on the occurrence of industrial plastics in glaucous gulls are available, a study by Seif et al (2018) examined 284 pieces of debris in other gulls and found only one single industrial pellet. The investigation of plastic in seabirds since the 1980s has shown a change in the global plastic composition where industrial plastic is declining, and user plastics dominate (Ryan, 2008;Ask et al, 2020;Kühn et al, 2021).…”