The National Institute of Limnology (INALI; CONICET-UNL), Ciudad Universitaria, 3000 Santa Fe, Argentina.
Faculty of Exact Sciences, Engineering and Surveying National University of Rosario (FCEIA, UNR), Rosario, Argentina.
Sci Total Environ. 2021 Dec 1;798:149317. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149317. Epub 2021 Jul 29.
Encounters (or interactions) between plastic debris and wildlife can cause great harm to individuals and populations. The most common encounters are ingestion, entanglement and plastic usage (plastic as nesting material, vector for biota transport and refuge/shelter). Hundreds of plastic-encounters have been reported for marine species. However, there is a lack of studies reporting encounters in other ecosystems, such as freshwater and terrestrial ones. Based on a citizen science approach, we documented and analyzed 90 different cases of macroplastic-fauna encounters for 44 freshwater and terrestrial species. Herein, we provided evidence (photographically documented) of the negative consequences of macroplastic debris discarded in freshwater and terrestrial environments. Birds were by far the taxon most frequently reported in encounters (72.2% of the encounters, 30 different species). The dominant type of plastic-fauna encounter was the use of plastic as nesting material (42% of the total cases) and the second one was entanglement (33%). Most of the entanglements had lethal consequences for the organisms involved (almost 60%). Entanglement in ghost fishing gear and bottle (security) rings were particularly dangerous and comparatively frequent in this study. Some invasive species could benefit from the encounters to the detriment of the environment's health, using plastics as settlement substrata. Finally, we lay the foundation for creating worldwide lists of non-marine species impacted by encounters with plastic debris.
塑料碎片与野生动物的相遇（或相互作用）会对个体和种群造成巨大伤害。最常见的相遇是摄入、缠绕和塑料使用（塑料作为筑巢材料、生物运输载体和避难所/栖息地）。已经有数百种海洋物种的塑料接触报告。然而，对于淡水和陆地等其他生态系统中的接触情况，研究报告却很少。基于公民科学方法，我们记录和分析了 44 种淡水和陆地物种中 90 种不同的大型塑料与动物相遇案例。在此，我们提供了在淡水和陆地环境中丢弃的大型塑料碎片造成的负面影响的证据（通过照片记录）。鸟类是迄今为止在接触中报道最多的分类群（占接触的 72.2%，涉及 30 个不同物种）。塑料与动物相遇的主要类型是将塑料用作筑巢材料（占总案例的 42%），其次是缠绕（33%）。大多数缠绕对所涉及的生物都有致命的影响（几乎 60%）。在本研究中，幽灵渔具和瓶（安全）环的缠绕特别危险且相对频繁。一些入侵物种可能会利用与塑料碎片的相遇来获益，从而危害环境健康，将塑料用作定居基质。最后，我们为创建受塑料碎片影响的非海洋物种的全球名录奠定了基础。
