Abstract
Pollution of the environment with plastic debris is a significant and rapidly expanding threat to biodiversity due to its abundance, durability, and persistence. Current knowledge of the negative effects of debris on wildlife is largely based on consequences that are readily observed, such as entanglement or starvation. Many interactions with debris, however, result in less visible and poorly documented sublethal effects, and as a consequence, the true impact of plastic is underestimated. We investigated the sublethal effects of ingested plastic in Flesh-footed Shearwaters (Ardenna carneipes) using blood chemistry parameters as a measure of bird health. The presence of plastic had a significant negative effect on bird morphometrics and blood calcium levels and a positive relationship with the concentration of uric acid, cholesterol, and amylase. That we found blood chemistry parameters being related to plastic pollution is one of the few examples to date of the sublethal effects of marine debris and highlights that superficially healthy individuals may still experience the negative consequences of ingesting plastic debris. Moving beyond crude measures, such as reduced body mass, to physiological parameters will provide much needed insight into the nuanced and less visible effects of plastic.
Highlights
Increasing demand for, and production of, plastic products coupled with inadequate waste management and policy contributes to the ongoing and rapidly expanding issue of pollution of our waterways and wildlife [1, 2]
To better understand the often invisible and sub-lethal effects of ingested plastic waste, we examined the clinical pathology of ingested plastic through blood chemistry and body condition in Flesh-footed Shearwaters
We found no relationship between the presence, number, or mass of plastics and packed cell volume, white blood cell count, or white blood cell composition (Table 2)
Summary
Increasing demand for, and production of, plastic products coupled with inadequate waste management and policy contributes to the ongoing and rapidly expanding issue of pollution of our waterways and wildlife [1, 2]. The negative consequences resulting from interactions between wildlife and plastic debris are diverse, often visually striking, and can include nutritional deprivation 6, entanglement [7, 8], and damage to or obstruction of the gut (e.g., perforations and ulcers; 9). Many of these interactions include less visible and less well documented effects such as reduced growth and survival rates following ingestion [6, 10, 11] and as a consequence, we are drastically underestimating the true impact of plastic waste on our oceans. How we manage our waste and understand the true scope and severity of impacts this has on wildlife has broad implications for the health of marine ecosystems
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