A5077379900- Microplastics and Plastic Pollution
- Recycling and Waste Management Techniques
- Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy
- Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies
- Energy and Environment Impacts
- Photovoltaic Systems and Sustainability
- Polar Research and Ecology
- Turtle Biology and Conservation
- Marine Biology and Environmental Chemistry
- biodegradable polymer synthesis and properties
- Wildlife-Road Interactions and Conservation
- Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Avian ecology and behavior
- Yersinia bacterium, plague, ectoparasites research
- Vibrio bacteria research studies
- Amphibian and Reptile Biology
- Effects and risks of endocrine disrupting chemicals
- Pharmaceutical and Antibiotic Environmental Impacts
- Marine Ecology and Invasive Species
- Geographies of human-animal interactions
- International Maritime Law Issues
- Fire effects on ecosystems
- Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Technologies
- Coastal and Marine Management
University of Cape Town
2016-2025
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
2022-2023
University of Pretoria
2021
Contrary to global production, most fibers floating in the ocean are not synthetic but natural of animal or plant origin.
While macroplastics have been washing up on Southern Ocean islands for decades and microplastics found in seabirds from the region since 1960, there are still relatively few quantitative data amount of plastic pollution, especially with regard to floating plastics, at high southern latitudes. We present a baseline estimate abundance plastics around survey macro-, meso- microplastic pollution conducted during Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition 2016/17. A total 40 net trawls 626 h...
Most studies report the abundance of plastic items in environment, but mass is an equally important currency for monitoring pollution, particularly given attempts to balance global budget. We determined size/mass composition litter stranded on a remote, infrequently-cleaned sandy beach west coast South Africa. Traditional surveys superficial macrolitter were augmented by sieved transects buried (8-mm mesh), mesolitter (2-mm mesh) and sediment cores microlitter. Aggregating data across all...
In the context of marine anthropogenic debris management, monitoring is essential to assess whether mitigation measures reduce amounts waste plastic entering environment are being effective. South Africa, baselines against which changes can be assessed include data from 1970s 1990s on microplastics floating at sea, macro- and microplastic beach debris, interactions with biota. However, detecting in abundance sea complicated by high spatial temporal heterogeneity net samples. Beach easier...
Using seabirds as bioindicators of marine plastic pollution requires an understanding how the retained in each species compares with that found their environment. We show brown skua Catharacta antarctica regurgitated pellets can be used to characterise plastics four seabird taxa breeding central South Atlantic, even though might underrepresent smallest items prey. Fregetta storm petrels ingested more thread-like and white-faced Pelagodroma marina industrial than broad-billed prions...
Limited work to date has examined plastic ingestion in highly migratory seabirds like Great Shearwaters ( Ardenna gravis ) across their entire range. We 217 obtained from 2008–2019 at multiple locations spanning yearly migration cycle the Northwest and South Atlantic assess accumulation of ingested as well trends over time between locations. A total 2328 fragments were documented ventriculus portion gastrointestinal tract, with an average 9 per bird. The mass, count, frequency occurrence...
Despite growing concern about the large amounts of waste plastic in marine ecosystems, evidence an increase amount floating at sea has been mixed. Both at-sea surveys and ingested loads seabirds show inconsistent significant increases since 1980s. We use 3727 brown skua Catharacta antarctica regurgitations, each containing remains a single seabird, to monitor changes four seabird taxa breeding Inaccessible Island, Tristan da Cunha nine years from 1987 2018. Frequency occurrence ingestion...
Wind energy is a clean, renewable alternative to fossil fuel-derived sources, but many birds are at risk from collisions with wind turbines. We summarise the diversity of killed by turbine 20 facilities (WEFs) across southwest South Africa. Monitoring 2014 2018 recovered 848 bird carcasses all WEFs, crude rate 1.0 ± 0.6 turbine−1 y−1 16 WEFs least 12 months postconstruction monitoring. However, mortality estimates adjusted for detection and scavenger bias were appreciably higher: 4.6 2.9 or...