Plastic pollution ingestion by marine birds; what we have learned since the 1960s - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Plastic pollution ingestion by marine birds; what we have learned since the 1960s

Dr. Jennifer ProvencherHead of the Wildlife Health Unit, Canadian Wildlife ServiceEnvironment and Climate Change Canada

Plastics in the Ocean, Brest France, November 2018

@

jenni_pro

Slide2

1. Ingestion and accumulation

2. Plastic as a vector for contaminants

3. Birds as a vector for plastics

Slide3

Marine birds - importance

Murres

Eiders

Slide4

Laysan albatross chicks

Chris Jordan

Slide5

History of ingested debris in seabirds

Couch (1838) reported part of a candle stick inside the gut of Wilson’s storm-petrel (Proceedings of the Linnaean Society of London)

Slide6

History of ingested debris in seabirds and other marine vertebrates

Provencher

et al.

Analytical Methods

2017

Slide7

Marine debris

Chris Jordan

Industrial plastic

All industrial pellets and nurdles

User plasticAll consumer plastic

http://plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com/page/14/

Endo et al. 2005

20 billion pounds of

plastic enter the oceans

each year

Slide8

C

oncern with marine debris1972 London Dumping Convention1973/1978 the MARPOL Convention 1992 Oslo and Paris Conventions for the protection of the marine environment of the northeast Atlantic (OSPAR)

Northern fulmar monitoring in the North Sea

Slide9

“there

should be less than 10% of Northern Fulmars having 0.1 g or more plastic in the stomach in samples of 50–100 beached Fulmars from each of 5 different areas of the North Sea over a period of at least 5 years”

Northern fulmar monitoring in the North Sea

1992 Oslo and Paris Conventions for the protection of the marine environment of the northeast Atlantic (OSPAR)

Slide10

Variation in plastics ingestion in seabirds over time

Provencher

et al.

Analytical Methods 2017

Slide11

Avery-Gomm et al. 2017 Marine Pollution Bulletin

Frequency of occurrence over birds with > 0.1 g of plastics

Ecological Quality Objective (

EcoQO

) target

Variation in plastics ingestion in seabirds

across large spatial scales

N

S

N

S

N

S

Western

North Atlantic

Eastern

North Atlantic

Western

North Pacific

Slide12

Variation in plastics ingestion in seabirds by foraging type

Foraging strategy is related to plastic ingestion

Seabirds at the PLI breeding colony, Nunavut

Frequency of occurrence (%)

Surface feeders

Divers

Poon et al. 2017

Marine Pollution Bulletin

Slide13

Variation in plastics ingestion in seabirds by foraging type

Sahar Seif BSc Honours

Debris ingestion by three

sympatric

gull species

Seif et al. 2017.

Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology

Slide14

Seabirds as bio-vectors of plastic pollution around the marine environment

Accumulated plastics and excreted plastics in fulmars collected by hunters in northern Canada

Provencher et al. 2018 STOTEN

Slide15

Physical effects

Blockage

False satiation

Chemical effects

Leaching of plastic additives

Concentrating of environmental contaminants

Plastics as a vector for chemical contaminants in marine ecosystems

Northern Contaminants Program

Slide16

Chemical pollution in the marine biota

Do microplastics

bioaccumulate?Do microplastics biomagnify?

Provencher et al. 2018 Environmental Reviews

Slide17

How the breakdown of plastics types differ

Pieces sorted visually as

fragments

n=162

Provencher et al. In prep

Nylon

Olefin

Polyethylene

Slide18

How do ingested plastics contribute to contaminants burdens in biota?

Concentration

of substituted diphenylamine antioxidants (SDPAs) pg/g

90% have ingested plastics

10% have ingested plastics

Lu et al. Submitted ES&T

Slide19

Trophic transfer of plastic debris

First documented transfer of plastics by prey in marine food webs

Hammer et al. 2016

Marine Pollution Bulletin

Prey

Plastics

Arctic

skuas

Northern

fulmars

Atlantic

puffins

Black-leggedkittiwakes

Sjúrður HammerPhD

Slide20

Trophic

Transfer of plastics, what do we know

Provencher et al. 2018 Environmental Reviews

Few ecosystems have more than a dozen plastics ingestion studies to date

The LME of NLFD and the Mediterranean

Many LMEs and FAO fishing regions have not been studied

Only 5 regional freshwater areas studied to date

Slide21

Plastic pollution distribution in the global oceans

Gross 2015 Current Biology

Slide22

Estimates of plastic pollution

Where we have looked in birds and other vertebrates

Priority regions:

The offshore areas

Western Central Pacific

Indian Ocean

Slide23

Marine birds - importance

Murres

Eiders

Slide24

Questions ?