Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, UiT─The Arctic University of Norway, N-9037 Tromsø, Norway.
Fram Centre, Norwegian Polar Institute, N-9296 Tromsø, Norway.
Environ Sci Technol. 2023 Mar 7;57(9):3562-3570. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.2c05617. Epub 2023 Feb 22.
Procellariiform seabirds like northern fulmars () are prone to ingest and accumulate floating plastic pieces. In the North Sea region, there is a long tradition to use beached fulmars as biomonitors for marine plastic pollution. Monitoring data revealed consistently lower plastic burdens in adult fulmars compared to younger age classes. Those findings were hypothesized to partly result from parental transfer of plastic to chicks. However, no prior study has examined this mechanism in fulmars by comparing plastic burdens in fledglings and older fulmars shortly after the chick-rearing period. Therefore, we investigated plastic ingestion in 39 fulmars from Kongsfjorden (Svalbard), including 21 fledglings and 18 older fulmars (adults/older immatures). We found that fledglings (50-60 days old) had significantly more plastic than older fulmars. While plastic was found in all fledglings, two older fulmars contained no and several older individuals barely any plastic. These findings supported that fulmar chicks from Svalbard get fed high quantities of plastic by their parents. Adverse effects of plastic on fulmars were indicated by one fragment that perforated the stomach and possibly one thread perforating the intestine. Negative correlations between plastic mass and body fat in fledglings and older fulmars were not significant.
管鼻类海鸟，如北方管鼻鹱（），容易摄入并积累漂浮的塑料碎片。在北海地区，一直以来都将搁浅的管鼻鹱作为海洋塑料污染的生物监测器。监测数据显示，成年管鼻鹱体内的塑料负荷明显低于年轻个体。这些发现部分归因于亲鸟向雏鸟转移塑料。然而，之前的研究尚未通过比较育雏期后刚离巢的幼鸟和年长个体的塑料负荷来检验管鼻鹱中的这种机制。因此，我们研究了来自康斯峡湾（斯瓦尔巴群岛）的 39 只管鼻鹱中的塑料摄入情况，其中包括 21 只幼鸟和 18 只年长个体（成鸟/年长幼鸟）。结果发现，幼鸟（50-60 天大）体内的塑料明显多于年长个体。虽然所有幼鸟体内都发现了塑料，但有两只年长个体体内没有塑料，还有几只年长个体几乎没有塑料。这些发现表明，来自斯瓦尔巴群岛的管鼻鹱雏鸟从亲鸟那里获得了大量的塑料。一只碎片刺穿了胃，还有一根线可能刺穿了肠子，这表明塑料对管鼻鹱可能产生了不良影响。幼鸟和年长个体体内的塑料质量与体脂之间的负相关性并不显著。
