Microplastic abundance in gull nests in relation to urbanization

0106 biological sciences Jamaica Microplastics Urbanization 15. Life on land 01 natural sciences Charadriiformes Massachusetts New England 11. Sustainability Animals Humans New York City 14. Life underwater Plastics Ecosystem Environmental Monitoring 0105 earth and related environmental sciences
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112058 Publication Date: 2021-01-27T22:57:53Z
ABSTRACT
Human activity and urbanization are having profound effects on natural landscapes and ecosystems. The presence and persistence of human-made materials such as microplastics can have major impacts on the health of organisms in both marine and terrestrial environments. We quantified microplastics in herring gull (Larus argentatus) and great black-backed gull (Larus marinus) nests at three colonies in the northeast United States that varied in their degree of urbanization: Jamaica Bay (JB) in New York City, Youngs Island (YI) on Long Island, New York, and Tuckernuck Island (TN) in Massachusetts. Nests in urban colonies contained a higher proportion of microplastics than those in the more remote colony. Our results link urbanization with microplastic accumulation in coastal environments and suggest that assessing microplastics in seabird nests could provide a means of evaluating microplastics encountered by seabirds and other coastal marine animals.
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