Auklet (Charadriiformes: Alcidae, Aethia spp.) chick meals from the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, have a very low incidence of plastic marine debris.
Mar Pollut Bull
; 60(8): 1346-9, 2010 Aug.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-20627261
ABSTRACT
The ingestion of plastic marine debris is a chronic problem for some of the world's seabird species, contributing to reduced chick survival, population declines, and deposition of contaminants via absorption in birds' gastrointestinal tract. We analysed the frequency of ingested plastic in chick meals delivered by adults in four species of auklet - Crested (Aethia cristatella), Least (A. pusilla), Parakeet (A. psittacula), and Whiskered (A. pygmaea) - from three breeding colonies in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska, USA over a 14-year period from 1993 to 2006. Among 2541 chick meals, we found plastic in only one - from a Whiskered Auklet on Buldir Island in 1993. While adult Parakeet Auklets have a high frequency of plastic ingestion (over 90%), no chick meals contained plastic. Unlike other seabirds, the planktivorous auklets do not appear to offload plastic to their chicks, and we conclude that auklet chicks are probably at a low risk of contamination from plastic debris.
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Plásticos
/
Poluentes Químicos da Água
/
Monitoramento Ambiental
/
Charadriiformes
/
Dieta
Tipo de estudo:
Incidence_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Animals
País/Região como assunto:
America do norte
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2010
Tipo de documento:
Article