Quantifying impacts of plastic debris on marine wildlife identifies ecological breakpoints

Nina Marn; Marko Jusup; Sebastiaan A.L.M. Kooijman; Tin Klanjscek

doi:10.1111/ele.13574

Quantifying impacts of plastic debris on marine wildlife identifies ecological breakpoints

Nina Marn^*
, Marko Jusup
, Sebastiaan A.L.M. Kooijman
, Tin Klanjscek

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

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Abstract

Quantifying sublethal effects of plastics ingestion on marine wildlife is difficult, but key to understanding the ontogeny and population dynamics of affected species. We developed a method that overcomes the difficulties by modelling individual ontogeny under reduced energy intake and expenditure caused by debris ingestion. The predicted ontogeny is combined with a population dynamics model to identify ecological breakpoints: cessation of reproduction or negative population growth. Exemplifying this approach on loggerhead turtles, we find that between 3% and 25% of plastics in digestive contents causes a 2.5–20% reduction in perceived food abundance and total available energy, resulting in a 10–15% lower condition index and 10% to 88% lower total seasonal reproductive output compared to unaffected turtles. The reported plastics ingestion is insufficient to impede sexual maturation, but population declines are possible. The method is readily applicable to other species impacted by debris ingestion.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1479-1487
Number of pages	9
Journal	Ecology Letters
Volume	23
Issue number	10
Early online date	13 Aug 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13574
Publication status	Published - Oct 2020

Funding

NM was supported by Unity Through Knowledge Fund (UKF) grant (no. 11/19). NM and TK were funded by the Croatian science foundation (HRZZ) project AqADAPT (no. IP-2018-01-3150). The authors thank P. Holme for logistic support, J. Lynch for sharing her database on sea turtle plastic ingestion, and the staff of the Pula Rehabilitation Center for sharing unpublished data. NM was supported by Unity Through Knowledge Fund (UKF) grant (no. 11/19). NM and TK were funded by the Croatian science foundation (HRZZ) project AqADAPT (no. IP‐2018‐01‐3150). The authors thank P. Holme for logistic support, J. Lynch for sharing her database on sea turtle plastic ingestion, and the staff of the Pula Rehabilitation Center for sharing unpublished data.

Funders	Funder number
HRZZ	IP-2018-01-3150
Unity through Knowledge Fund	11/19

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 14 Life Below Water

Keywords

conservation
debris ingestion
physiological energetics
sea turtles
stressors

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10.1111/ele.13574

Quantifying impacts of plastic debris on marine wildlife identifies ecological breakpointsFinal published version, 688 KBLicence: Article 25fa Dutch Copyright Act

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title = "Quantifying impacts of plastic debris on marine wildlife identifies ecological breakpoints",

abstract = "Quantifying sublethal effects of plastics ingestion on marine wildlife is difficult, but key to understanding the ontogeny and population dynamics of affected species. We developed a method that overcomes the difficulties by modelling individual ontogeny under reduced energy intake and expenditure caused by debris ingestion. The predicted ontogeny is combined with a population dynamics model to identify ecological breakpoints: cessation of reproduction or negative population growth. Exemplifying this approach on loggerhead turtles, we find that between 3\% and 25\% of plastics in digestive contents causes a 2.5–20\% reduction in perceived food abundance and total available energy, resulting in a 10–15\% lower condition index and 10\% to 88\% lower total seasonal reproductive output compared to unaffected turtles. The reported plastics ingestion is insufficient to impede sexual maturation, but population declines are possible. The method is readily applicable to other species impacted by debris ingestion.",

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author = "Nina Marn and Marko Jusup and Kooijman, \{Sebastiaan A.L.M.\} and Tin Klanjscek",

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AU - Jusup, Marko

AU - Kooijman, Sebastiaan A.L.M.

AU - Klanjscek, Tin

PY - 2020/10

Y1 - 2020/10

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Quantifying impacts of plastic debris on marine wildlife identifies ecological breakpoints

Abstract

Funding

UN SDGs

Keywords

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