Hipfner J M, Studholme K R, Galbraith M
Wildlife Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, RR#1 5421 Robertson Road, Delta, BC V4K 3N2, Canada.
Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, 1355 Oxford Street, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada.
Mar Pollut Bull. 2017 Aug 15;121(1-2):320-322. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.06.028.
We quantified the amount of plastic found in food loads delivered to nestlings in Cassin's Auklet (Ptychoramphus aleuticus), a small, zooplanktivorous seabird, on Triangle Island, British Columbia, in 1996-2016. The density of plastic in surrounding waters is moderately high, yet few food loads contained any plastic (3 of 850), and none more than two pieces. That result accords well with previous observations on the other four North Pacific auklets (Aethia spp.), leading us to conclude that true auklets rarely transfer plastic to nestlings. However, many hatch-year Cassin's Auklets found dead in coastal British Columbia, Washington and Oregon during the mass mortality event of fall and winter 2014-15 had plastic in their ventriculi. We suggest that these plastic particles would have been obtained at sea after fledging, perhaps while the birds transited south through a region of high plastic density off the west coast of Vancouver Island, Washington and Oregon.
1996年至2016年期间，我们对不列颠哥伦比亚省三角岛上小嘴海雀（Ptychoramphus aleuticus）雏鸟所获食物中发现的塑料量进行了量化。小嘴海雀是一种小型的以浮游动物为食的海鸟。周围水域的塑料密度中等偏高，但很少有食物中含有塑料（850份食物中有3份），且每份食物中的塑料都不超过两片。这一结果与之前对其他四种北太平洋小海雀（Aethia属）的观察结果非常吻合，使我们得出结论：真正的小海雀很少将塑料传递给雏鸟。然而，在2014 - 2015年秋冬大规模死亡事件期间，在不列颠哥伦比亚省、华盛顿州和俄勒冈州沿海发现的许多当年孵化的小嘴海雀尸体，其心室中都有塑料。我们认为，这些塑料颗粒可能是雏鸟离巢后在海上获取的，也许是在它们向南迁徙经过温哥华岛西海岸、华盛顿州和俄勒冈州附近塑料密度较高的区域时获取的。
