Cargando…

Plastic ingestion by marine fish is widespread and increasing

Plastic pollution has pervaded almost every facet of the biosphere, yet we lack an understanding of consumption risk by marine species at the global scale. To address this, we compile data from research documenting plastic debris ingestion by marine fish, totaling 171,774 individuals of 555 species....

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Savoca, Matthew S., McInturf, Alexandra G., Hazen, Elliott L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8247990/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33561314
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15533
_version_ 1783716629874475008
author Savoca, Matthew S.
McInturf, Alexandra G.
Hazen, Elliott L.
author_facet Savoca, Matthew S.
McInturf, Alexandra G.
Hazen, Elliott L.
author_sort Savoca, Matthew S.
collection PubMed
description Plastic pollution has pervaded almost every facet of the biosphere, yet we lack an understanding of consumption risk by marine species at the global scale. To address this, we compile data from research documenting plastic debris ingestion by marine fish, totaling 171,774 individuals of 555 species. Overall, 386 marine fish species have ingested plastic debris including 210 species of commercial importance. However, 148 species studied had no records of plastic consumption, suggesting that while this evolutionary trap is widespread, it is not yet universal. Across all studies that accounted for microplastics, the incidence rate of plastic ingested by fish was 26%. Over the last decade this incidence has doubled, increasing by 2.4 ± 0.4% per year. This is driven both by increasing detection of smaller sized particles as a result of improved methodologies, as well as an increase in fish consuming plastic. Further, we investigated the role of geographic, ecological, and behavioral factors in the ingestion of plastic across species. These analyses revealed that the abundance of plastic in surface waters was positively correlated to plastic ingestion. Demersal species are more likely to ingest plastic in shallow waters; in contrast, pelagic species were most likely to consume plastic below the mixed layer. Mobile predatory species had the highest likelihood to ingest plastic; similarly, we found a positive relationship between trophic level and plastic ingestion. We also find evidence that surface ingestion‐deep sea egestion of microplastics by mesopelagic myctophids is likely a key mechanism for the export of microplastics from the surface ocean to the seafloor, a sink for marine debris. These results elucidate the role of ecology and biogeography underlying plastic ingestion by marine fish and point toward species and regions in urgent need of study.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8247990
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher John Wiley and Sons Inc.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-82479902021-07-02 Plastic ingestion by marine fish is widespread and increasing Savoca, Matthew S. McInturf, Alexandra G. Hazen, Elliott L. Glob Chang Biol Primary Research Articles Plastic pollution has pervaded almost every facet of the biosphere, yet we lack an understanding of consumption risk by marine species at the global scale. To address this, we compile data from research documenting plastic debris ingestion by marine fish, totaling 171,774 individuals of 555 species. Overall, 386 marine fish species have ingested plastic debris including 210 species of commercial importance. However, 148 species studied had no records of plastic consumption, suggesting that while this evolutionary trap is widespread, it is not yet universal. Across all studies that accounted for microplastics, the incidence rate of plastic ingested by fish was 26%. Over the last decade this incidence has doubled, increasing by 2.4 ± 0.4% per year. This is driven both by increasing detection of smaller sized particles as a result of improved methodologies, as well as an increase in fish consuming plastic. Further, we investigated the role of geographic, ecological, and behavioral factors in the ingestion of plastic across species. These analyses revealed that the abundance of plastic in surface waters was positively correlated to plastic ingestion. Demersal species are more likely to ingest plastic in shallow waters; in contrast, pelagic species were most likely to consume plastic below the mixed layer. Mobile predatory species had the highest likelihood to ingest plastic; similarly, we found a positive relationship between trophic level and plastic ingestion. We also find evidence that surface ingestion‐deep sea egestion of microplastics by mesopelagic myctophids is likely a key mechanism for the export of microplastics from the surface ocean to the seafloor, a sink for marine debris. These results elucidate the role of ecology and biogeography underlying plastic ingestion by marine fish and point toward species and regions in urgent need of study. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021-02-09 2021-05 /pmc/articles/PMC8247990/ /pubmed/33561314 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15533 Text en © 2021 The Authors. Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
spellingShingle Primary Research Articles
Savoca, Matthew S.
McInturf, Alexandra G.
Hazen, Elliott L.
Plastic ingestion by marine fish is widespread and increasing
title Plastic ingestion by marine fish is widespread and increasing
title_full Plastic ingestion by marine fish is widespread and increasing
title_fullStr Plastic ingestion by marine fish is widespread and increasing
title_full_unstemmed Plastic ingestion by marine fish is widespread and increasing
title_short Plastic ingestion by marine fish is widespread and increasing
title_sort plastic ingestion by marine fish is widespread and increasing
topic Primary Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8247990/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33561314
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15533
work_keys_str_mv AT savocamatthews plasticingestionbymarinefishiswidespreadandincreasing
AT mcinturfalexandrag plasticingestionbymarinefishiswidespreadandincreasing
AT hazenelliottl plasticingestionbymarinefishiswidespreadandincreasing