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Disentangling the influence of taxa, behaviour and debris ingestion on seabird mortality
Citation
Roman, L and Hardesty, BD and Hindell, MA and Wilcox, C, Disentangling the influence of taxa, behaviour and debris ingestion on seabird mortality, Environmental Research Letters, 15, (12) Article 124071. ISSN 1748-9326 (2020) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright 2020 The Authors. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence.
DOI: doi:10.1088/1748-9326/abcc8e
Abstract
Marine debris is a growing threat to hundreds of marine animal species. To understand the
consequences of marine debris to wildlife populations, studies must go beyond reporting the
incidence of wildlife and debris interactions and aim to quantify the harm resulting from these
interactions. Tubenosed seabirds are globally threatened, with a near universal risk of debris
ingestion and an unquantified risk of mortality due to eating plastics. In this paper, we explore the
mortality risk narrative due to the acute effects of debris ingestion, and quantify behavioural and
ecological factors including age, diet and foraging method. We examined ingested debris loads,
types and mortality of 972 adult and immature seabirds across 17 albatross, shearwater and prion
species in a global seabird biodiversity hotspot. Though age and foraging method interact to
influence the incidence and number of items ingested, age and diet were the most important
factors influencing mortality. Mortality is influenced by debris load and type of debris ingested and
there is selectivity for items that visually resemble a seabird’s prey. Immature birds that forage on
cephalopods are more likely to ingest and die from eating debris than are adults. Conversely, the
risk of death to seabirds that forage on crustaceans is linked to the number of plastic items ingested
and is higher in adults. Debris ingestion is an under-recognised cause of tubenose mortality and is
likely negatively affecting rare and threatened species.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | plastic, seabirds, pollution, marine |
| Research Division: | Biological Sciences |
| Research Group: | Ecology |
| Research Field: | Marine and estuarine ecology (incl. marine ichthyology) |
| Objective Division: | Environmental Management |
| Objective Group: | Management of Antarctic and Southern Ocean environments |
| Objective Field: | Protection and conservation of Antarctic and Southern Ocean environments |
| UTAS Author: | Roman, L (Dr Lauren Roman) |
| UTAS Author: | Hindell, MA (Professor Mark Hindell) |
| ID Code: | 143245 |
| Year Published: | 2020 |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 5 |
| Deposited By: | Ecology and Biodiversity |
| Deposited On: | 2021-03-08 |
| Last Modified: | 2021-06-25 |
| Downloads: | 7 View Download Statistics |
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