Frequency of plastic occurrence varies across phylogeny but not ecology in seabirds.
11 affiliations
- 1School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland , Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
- 2Wildlife and Landscape Science Directorate, Science and Technology Branch, Environment and Climate Change Canada , Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
- 3Science Group, Natural History Museum , London, UK.
- 4Imperial College London , London, UK.
- 5University College London , London, UK.
- 6Bird Group, Natural History Museum , Tring, UK.
- 7BirdLife International, Pacific Secretariat , Suva, Fiji.
- 8Adrift Lab , Underwood, Amarillo, USA.
- 9Gulbali Institute, Charles Sturt University , Albury, Australia.
- 10Department of Biological Sciences, University of Oxford , Oxford, UK.
- 11University of Queensland , Brisbane, Australia.
Abstract
Seabirds are especially vulnerable to ingesting plastic pollution. However, we have a limited understanding of which traits might increase their risk of plastic ingestion. Here, we use a dataset of seabird plastic occurrence records (93 281 birds from 240 species) to investigate which species accumulate plastic and whether this is related to diet, foraging method, pelagic specialism, body mass or phylogenetic position. In our dataset, 182 of the 240 species (76%) contained plastic. Within orders, the highest levels were in pelicans (Pelecaniformes; 67%) and the lowest in penguins (Sphenisciformes; 5%). In our phylogenetically informed analysis, accounting for artefacts of study design (e.g. sample size, year, ocean, source, age class and sampling method), none of the ecological traits we tested had a consistent effect on plastic occurrence. Instead, phylogenetic relatedness was the best predictor in our models, reflecting the tight correlation between seabird phylogenetic groupings and their traits. This suggests that phylogenetic position may serve as a rapid way to identify species likely to accumulate plastic. Future research should focus on developing predictions of plastic accumulation risk for understudied species, implementing standardized methodologies and investigating species-specific morphological and environmental variables that may affect their risk of plastic accumulation.
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BibTeX
@article{averygomm2026frequency,
title = {{Frequency of plastic occurrence varies across phylogeny but not ecology in seabirds.}},
author = {Stephanie Avery-Gomm and Nia Potapova and Chrissie Potter and Alexander L Bond and Stephanie B Borrelle and Jennifer L Lavers and Steven J Portugal and Hugh Possingham and Jennifer Provencher and Natalie Cooper},
journal = {Biology letters},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1098/rsbl.2026.0079},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42869448},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Frequency of plastic occurrence varies across phylogeny but not ecology in seabirds.
AU - Stephanie Avery-Gomm
AU - Nia Potapova
AU - Chrissie Potter
AU - Alexander L Bond
AU - Stephanie B Borrelle
AU - Jennifer L Lavers
AU - Steven J Portugal
AU - Hugh Possingham
AU - Jennifer Provencher
AU - Natalie Cooper
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/01
JO - Biology letters
DO - 10.1098/rsbl.2026.0079
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42869448
AB - Seabirds are especially vulnerable to ingesting plastic pollution. However, we have a limited understanding of which traits might increase their risk of plastic ingestion. Here, we use a dataset of seabird plastic occurrence records (93 281 birds from 240 species) to investigate which species accumulate plastic and whether this is related to diet, foraging method, pelagic specialism, body mass or phylogenetic position. In our dataset, 182 of the 240 species (76%) contained plastic. Within orders, the highest levels were in pelicans (Pelecaniformes; 67%) and the lowest in penguins (Sphenisciformes; 5%). In our phylogenetically informed analysis, accounting for artefacts of study design (e.g. sample size, year, ocean, source, age class and sampling method), none of the ecological traits we tested had a consistent effect on plastic occurrence. Instead, phylogenetic relatedness was the best predictor in our models, reflecting the tight correlation between seabird phylogenetic groupings and their traits. This suggests that phylogenetic position may serve as a rapid way to identify species likely to accumulate plastic. Future research should focus on developing predictions of plastic accumulation risk for understudied species, implementing standardized methodologies and investigating species-specific morphological and environmental variables that may affect their risk of plastic accumulation.
SN - 1744-9561
SN - 1744-957X
ER -