Centro para la Sostenibilidad Ambiental, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru.
Subgerencia de Salud y Medio Ambiente, Municipalidad Provincial de Sechura, Piura, Peru.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2023 Apr;30(20):57759-57770. doi: 10.1007/s11356-023-26617-x. Epub 2023 Mar 27.
Plastics have brought many benefits to society, but their mismanagement has turned them into a serious environmental problem. Today, the effects of plastic waste on wildlife are becoming increasingly evident. Since studies on plastic pollution have focused on species in marine ecosystems, here we review current knowledge on interactions between terrestrial mammals and plastic waste in the countries of the Americas, which is a global hotspot of mammalian biodiversity and in turn has, among its member countries, nations with high per capita generations of plastic waste globally. We identified 46 scientific articles documenting plastic ingestion in 37 species and four species that used plastic waste for nest or burrow construction. Of the 46 investigations, seven focused on plastic contamination, while the others reported on the presence of plastics in wildlife, even though this was not the primary focus of the research. However, these publications lack analytical methods commonly used in plastic studies, and only one study applied a standardized methodology for plastic detection. Therefore, in general, plastic pollution research on terrestrial mammals is limited. We extend several recommendations such as designing methodologies that are adapted to terrestrial mammals for the identification of plastics in fecal matter or gastrointestinal contents, carrying out species-specific analyzes on the impacts of plastics in nests or burrows, and giving further attention to this understudied issue and taxa.
塑料给社会带来了许多好处，但它们的管理不善已使其成为一个严重的环境问题。如今，塑料废物对野生动物的影响变得越来越明显。由于对塑料污染的研究主要集中在海洋生态系统中的物种上，因此在这里我们回顾了美洲国家中陆地哺乳动物与塑料废物之间相互作用的现有知识，这些国家是哺乳动物生物多样性的全球热点地区，而这些国家中又有一些国家的人均塑料废物产生量在全球处于较高水平。我们确定了 46 篇科学文章，记录了 37 个物种和 4 个物种吞食塑料的情况，还有四个物种将塑料废物用于巢或洞穴的建造。在这 46 项调查中，有 7 项侧重于塑料污染，而其他的则报告了野生动物体内存在塑料，尽管这不是研究的主要重点。然而，这些出版物缺乏塑料研究中常用的分析方法，只有一项研究应用了标准化的塑料检测方法。因此，总的来说，关于陆地哺乳动物的塑料污染研究是有限的。我们提出了一些建议，例如设计适用于陆地哺乳动物的方法，用于识别粪便或胃肠道内容物中的塑料；对巢穴或洞穴中塑料的影响进行特定物种的分析；并进一步关注这一研究不足的问题和类群。
