Publications by authors named "Bianca C Keys"
Article Synopsis
- Coastal areas, especially estuaries and beaches, are highly vulnerable to plastic pollution, accumulating microplastics from both land and sea sources.
- Researchers studied small plastics (200 nm to 70 μm) in two shorebird species in Tasmania, finding micro- and nanoplastics in 100% of bird droppings and surrounding sediments.
- The Eastern Hooded Plover ingested significantly more plastics than the Australian Pied Oystercatcher, but the amount of plastics in sediments did not impact the birds’ ingestion levels, indicating other factors like prey selection are at play.
Plastic ingestion has been documented in a plethora of taxa. However, there is a significant gap in the detection of nano- and ultrafine particles due to size limitations of commonly used techniques. Using two Australian seabird species as case studies, the flesh-footed shearwater (FFSH) and short-tailed shearwater (STSH) , we tested a novel approach of flow cytometry to quantify ingested particles <70 μm in the fecal precursor (guano; colon and cloacal contents) of both species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF