[en] Arctic wildlife is facing multiple stressors, including increasing plastic pollution. Seabirds are intrinsic to marine ecosystems, but most seabird populations are declining. We lack knowledge on plastic ingestion in many arctic seabird species, and there is an urgent need for more information to enable risk assessment and monitoring. Our study aimed to investigate the occurrence of plastics in glaucous gulls (Larus hyperboreus) breeding on Svalbard. The glaucous gull is a sentinel species for the health of the arctic marine ecosystem, but there have been no studies investigating plastic occurrence in this species since 1994. As a surface feeder and generalist living in an area with high human activity on Svalbard, we expected to find plastic in its stomach. We investigated for plastic >1 mm and documented plastic ingestion for the first time in glaucous gulls, with a frequency of occurrence of 14.3% (n = 21). The plastics were all identified as user plastics and consisted of polypropylene (PP) and polystyrene (PS). Our study provides new quantitative and qualitative data on plastic burden and polymer type reported in a standardized manner establishing a reference point for future research and monitoring of arctic gulls on national and international levels.
Disciplines :
Environmental sciences & ecology
Author, co-author :
Benjaminsen, Stine Charlotte; Norwegian Polar Institute, Fram Centre, 9296 Tromsø, Norway. Electronic address: stinebenjaminsen@outlook.com
Bourgeon, Sophie; UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, Hansine Hansens veg 18, 9019 Tromsø, Norway
Herzke, Dorte; Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), Framsenteret, Hjalmar Johansens Gate 14, 9296 Tromsø, Norway
Ask, Amalie; Department of Biology, FI-20014, University of Turku, Finland
Collard, France ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de chimie (sciences) > Chimie analytique inorganique ; Norwegian Polar Institute, Fram Centre, 9296 Tromsø, Norway
Gabrielsen, Geir Wing; Norwegian Polar Institute, Fram Centre, 9296 Tromsø, Norway
Language :
English
Title :
First documentation of plastic ingestion in the arctic glaucous gull (Larus hyperboreus).
RCN - Research Council of Norway [NO] Norwegian Polar Institute [NO]
Funding text :
We acknowledge the PLASTPOLL project, funded by the Research Council of Norway #275172. This work was also partially funded through internal funding from the Norwegian Polar Institute. We want to thank the team from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology who collected the glaucous gull samples in the Adventfjord, Tomasz M. Ciesielski, ?se-Karen Mortensen, and Bj?rn Munro Jenssen. We would like to thank Felix Tulatz who took part in the FTIR-analysis and Ingeborg Hallanger for providing the equipment used in the laboratory.We acknowledge the PLASTPOLL project, funded by the Research Council of Norway # 275172 . This work was also partially funded through internal funding from the Norwegian Polar Institute . We want to thank the team from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology who collected the glaucous gull samples in the Adventfjord, Tomasz M. Ciesielski, Åse-Karen Mortensen, and Bjørn Munro Jenssen. We would like to thank Felix Tulatz who took part in the FTIR-analysis and Ingeborg Hallanger for providing the equipment used in the laboratory.
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