Anthropogenic debris ingestion in a tropical seabird community: Insights from taxonomy and foraging distribution

Oceans have been considered as an unlimited supply of goods and services, but resource extraction and waste disposal became ubiquitous and have been damaging the health of marine ecosystems. Finding suitable sentinel species of the human impacts on the oceans is thus imperative, since they may work...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Science of the total environment 2023-11, Vol.898, p.165437-165437, Article 165437
Main Authors: Matos, D.M., Ramos, J.A., Bessa, Filipa, Silva, Vítor, Rodrigues, Isabel, Antunes, Stefan, dos Santos, I., Coentro, João, Brandão, A.L.C., Batista de Carvalho, L.A.E., Marques, M.P.M., Santos, Sara, Paiva, V.H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Faeces
Human-derived fibres
Marine debris
Neritic regions
Oceanic regions
Plastics pollution
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Oceans have been considered as an unlimited supply of goods and services, but resource extraction and waste disposal became ubiquitous and have been damaging the health of marine ecosystems. Finding suitable sentinel species of the human impacts on the oceans is thus imperative, since they may work as early warnings of disruptive situations. In this study, we investigated how taxonomy and foraging distribution influenced the occurrence of anthropogenic debris among five seabird species inhabiting the tropical Atlantic region. Occurrence of anthropogenic debris was assessed using faeces of breeding individuals as a proxy of ingestion. A total of 268 particles were extracted from all samples. The categories “fragments” and “fibres”, as well as the colour “blue”, were the most prevalent characteristics across species. There was a high diversity of polymers from cellulosic particles to synthetic plastics (Anthropogenic Cellulosic 26.9 %; Polyester 7.7 %; Varnish 5.8 %; Polypropylene 1.9 %). Species with a more coastal foraging strategy exhibited higher occurrence and number of anthropogenic debris when compared to species foraging comparably more in pelagic areas. This suggests that anthropogenic debris are more prevalent in coastal foraging areas, where human activities occur in higher number and frequency (e.g., fisheries) and sources of freshwater input from inland are at close distance. These results provide more evidence to the growing perception on the ubiquity and diversity of anthropogenic debris in the marine environment, and further support the usefulness of using seabirds as bio-indicators of anthropogenic pollution in both neritic and oceanic regions. [Display omitted] •Anthropogenic particles were found in all study species.•Pelagic species were less susceptible to anthropogenic ingestion than coastal species.•Foraging close to anthropogenic activities could be an important source of anthropogenic particles.•Twenty-seven percent of the analysed particles were cellulosic particles.•Fifteen percent of the analysed particles were identified as synthetic.
ISSN:0048-9697
1879-1026
DOI:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.165437