Implications of Regurgitative Feeding on Plastic Loads in Northern Fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis): A Study from Svalbard.

ABSTRACT: Procellariiform seabirds like northern fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) 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 fle

SUBMITTER: Tulatz F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9996815 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature