Abstract:
Using seabirds as bioindicators of marine plastic pollution requires an understanding of how the plastic retained in each species compares with that found in their environment. We show that brown skua Catharacta antarctica regurgitated pellets can be used to characterise plastics in four seabird taxa breeding in the central South Atlantic, even though skua pellets might underrepresent the smallest plastic items in their prey. Fregetta storm petrels ingested more thread-like plastics and white-faced storm petrels Pelagodroma marina more industrial pellets than broad-billed prions Pachyptila vittata and great shearwaters Ardenna gravis. Ingested plastic composition (type, colour and polymer) was similar to floating plastics in the region sampled with a 200 μm net, but storm petrels were better indicators of the size of plastics than prions and shearwaters. Given this information, plastics in skua pellets containing the remains of seabirds can be used to track long-term changes in floating marine plastics.
摘要:
使用海鸟作为海洋塑料污染的生物指标,需要了解保留在每个物种中的塑料与环境中的塑料相比如何。我们表明,在南大西洋中部繁殖的四个海鸟类群中,棕色skuaCatharacta南极反流颗粒可用于表征塑料,即使skua颗粒可能不足以代表猎物中最小的塑料物品。Fregetta风暴海燕摄取了更多的线状塑料和白面风暴海燕Pelagodroma码头,而不是宽嘴par病毒Pachyptilavittata和大剪力水Ardennagravis,更多的工业颗粒。摄入的塑料组合物(类型,颜色和聚合物)与用200μm网采样的区域中的漂浮塑料相似,但是风暴海燕比朊病毒和羊水更好地反映了塑料的大小。鉴于这些信息,含有海鸟残骸的skua颗粒中的塑料可用于跟踪浮动海洋塑料的长期变化。