Mastodawn

CodieneC Apr 14, 2024

"So when we open up one of these birds that has just incredible volumes of plastic inside of it, we notice almost immediately these ripples and folds are gone, and so are those tubular glands and the birds ability to excrete or produce hydrochloric acid, enzymes and a really important mucus that protects the stomach from things like bacteria and viruses. So you can see how this would kind of cascade." #plasticosis #plastics
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/research-ocean-plastic-birds-plasticosis-1.6863788

Plastic pollution is so bad for animals it now has a disease name — 'plasticosis' | CBC Radio

Flesh-footed shearwater seabirds ingest plastic that leads to scarring of their internal organs, kidney and liver disease, all of which results in them starving and becoming more vulnerable to pathogens.

CBC

AdriftLab May 31, 2023

Another #AdriftLab #seabird paper has been featured in #AudubonMagazine (this important #research from #Australia will now reach an even broader audience in the USA) 🥳 - congrats to Hayley (our student) and team 👏

“a word can only do so much. Ultimately, reducing the world’s reliance on #plastic is the preventive treatment for #plasticosis”

#LordHoweIsland #PlasticPollution #SublethalEffects #PlasticIngestion @SeabirdSentinel @TheLabAndField READ THE ARTICLE HERE ➡️https://www.audubon.org/news/plastic-pollution-so-pervasive-its-causing-new-disease-seabirds

Plastic Pollution Is So Pervasive That It’s Causing a New Disease in Seabirds

Researchers coined the term “plasticosis” to describe stomach damage related to ingesting trash.

Audubon

AdriftLab Apr 2, 2023

✨New #AdriftLab paper✨ “Pumice ingestion in #seabirds: interannual variation, and relationships with chick growth and plastic ingestion” 🐦🌋 #OpenAccess (free to download) HERE ➡️ https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00227-023-04203-6

We analysed the amount of ingested #pumice (on LEFT in photo) from 739 Flesh-footed & 173 Wedge-tailed #Shearwaters from #LordHoweIsland during 2011-2022 #LongTermMonitoring

Pumice mass did not vary over time, except for one higher year for each species (2016 for FFSH & 2014 for WTSH), and there was no effect of pumice mass on chick body size at fledgling.

Our results are consistent with the coexistence over geological time of seabirds and floating pumice & provides further evidence that ingested pumice does not cause #Plasticosis or other harm like #IngestedPlastic does
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304389422019112

Big thanks to Gabbi for providing the photo used in Figure 1 and to @nhm_london and Esperance Tjaltjraak Native Title Aboriginal Corporation for their endless support!! 🙏 @SeabirdSentinel @TheLabAndField

Pumice ingestion in seabirds: interannual variation, and relationships with chick growth and plastic ingestion - Marine Biology

Many species of seabird ingest or are provisioned with pumice stones, buoyant volcanic rocks that are thought to aide in digestion, occasionally during times of poor prey availability. Unlike other indigestible matter, like plastics, the effect of pumice on chick growth, its relationship with ingested plastics, and variation among years has not yet been examined. We analysed the amount of ingested pumice from 739 Flesh-footed (Ardenna carneipes) and 173 Wedge-tailed Shearwaters (A. pacifica) from Lord Howe Island, Australia sampled using stomach lavage between 2011 and 2022. The total mass of ingested pumice was positively related to the mass of ingested plastics in Flesh-footed, but not Wedge-tailed Shearwaters, but not when using mean stone mass. Pumice mass did not vary over time, except for one higher year for each species (2016 for Flesh-footed Shearwaters and 2014 for Wedge-tailed Shearwaters), and there was no effect of pumice mass on chick body size at fledgling. Our results are consistent with the coexistence over geological time of seabirds and floating pumice, and future work should focus on aspects of retention in the digestive system and potential interactions with and efficacy in the presence of novel materials, like plastics.

SpringerLink

AdriftLab Mar 25, 2023

#AdriftLab’s new paper describing the disease #Plasticosis - fibrosis as a result of exposure to #IngestedPlastics - is ranked 🥇NUMBER ONE🥇 by #Altmetric for the Journal of Hazardous Materials 🥳 #seabirds #microplastics #SublethalEffects #wildlife #OceanHealth #sentinel @SeabirdSentinel @TheLabAndField

SeabirdSentinel Mar 12, 2023

@AdriftLab identified a new fibrotic disease called #plasticosis in #seabirds, a group well known for consuming #plastic.
Nearly every organism — including humans — is being impacted by plastic in some way https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/plastic-consumption-is-killing-this-seabird-and-likely-other-species-too/

Plastic consumption is killing this seabird — and likely other species too

When flesh-footed shearwater chicks hatch from their eggs, their parents start working to fill the chicks’ stomachs with as much food as possible. They do this for about 80 to 90 days, regurgitating squid and fish into their chicks’ mouths. If all goes to plan, the chicks will grow into fledglings with feathers that will […]

Mongabay Environmental News