Plastics and other anthropogenic debris in freshwater birds from Canada

• Published in: The Science of the total environment Vol. 571; pp. 251 - 258
• Main Authors: Holland, Erika R., Mallory, Mark L., Shutler, Dave
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 15-11-2016
• Subjects: Animals; Anseriformes; Aquatic Organisms; Birds; Birdshot; Body Size; Canada; Diet; Eating; Environmental Monitoring; Metal; Microplastics; Non-plastic rubbish; Plastics - analysis; Species Specificity; Waste Products - analysis; Water Pollutants - analysis; ANW, Canada; Non-plastic rubbish; Birdshot; Microplastics; Metal; Diet
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.07.158

Plastics in marine environments are a global environmental issue. Plastic ingestion is associated with a variety of deleterious health effects in marine wildlife, and is a focus of much international research and monitoring. However, little research has focused on ramifications of plastic debris for freshwater organisms, despite marine and freshwater environments often having comparable plastic concentrations. We quantified plastic and other anthropogenic debris in 350 individuals of 17 freshwater and one marine bird species collected across Canada. We determined freshwater birds' anthropogenic debris ingestion rates to be 11.1% across all species studied. This work establishes that plastics and other anthropogenic debris are a genuine concern for management of the health of freshwater ecosystems, and provides a baseline for the prevalence of plastic and other anthropogenic debris ingestion in freshwater birds in Canada, with relevance for many other locations.
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•Dissection-based dietary analyses determined freshwater bird debris loads.•Anthropogenic debris was found in 10 of 18 species.•Approximately 11% of individuals had anthropogenic debris.