Changes in plastic ingestion by yellow-legged gulls (Larus michahellis) over the breeding season.

Autor: Nono Almeida F; MIVEGEC, University of Montpellier CNRS IRD, Centre IRD, Montpellier, France. Electronic address: florence.nonoalmeida@gmail.com., Leray C; Tour du Valat, Research Institute for the Conservation of Mediterranean Wetlands, Arles, France., Boutry J; MIVEGEC, University of Montpellier CNRS IRD, Centre IRD, Montpellier, France., Ter Halle A; IMRCP, UMR 5623 CNRS University of Toulouse III Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France., Vittecoq M; Tour du Valat, Research Institute for the Conservation of Mediterranean Wetlands, Arles, France., Provencher JF; Environment and Climate Change Canada, National Wildlife Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada., McCoy KD; MIVEGEC, University of Montpellier CNRS IRD, Centre IRD, Montpellier, France.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Marine pollution bulletin [Mar Pollut Bull] 2023 Feb; Vol. 187, pp. 114483. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Jan 04.
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.114483
Abstrakt: Gulls can be particularly vulnerable to ingesting plastics when using anthropogenic food sources, with potential consequences for survival and reproductive success. Although birds are known to switch foraging habitats over the breeding season to provide higher quality food for chick provisioning, it is unclear what this means regarding the ingestion of plastics. Here, we tested whether breeding gulls decrease the amount of plastic ingested during reproduction by collecting pellets from a series of monitored nests at a large yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis) colony in southern France. We found at least one plastic item in 83.9 % of the analyzed pellets, with the most abundant plastic type being polyethylene-based sheet plastic. As predicted, we found a slight decrease in the number of plastic items in pellets at chick hatching. These results suggest that gulls, like other birds, may adjust foraging habits to provide more digestible, less risky, food to chicks.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Crown Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
Externí odkaz: