J.A. van Franeker

Plastic ingestion in the North Atlantic fulmar

Abstract Fulmars found dead on the Dutch coast, and fulmars collected in arctic colonies have considerable quantities of plastic in their stomachs. The average number of plastic items ingested is almost twelve in Dutch fulmars, and four to five in arctic fulmars. User-plastics and industrial plastics are about equally abundant. Ingestion of user-plastics suggests a stronger impact of toxic chemicals from plastics than generally assumed.

Contrasting time trends of organic contaminants in Antarctic pelagic and benthic food webs

We demonstrate that pelagic Antarctic seabirds show significant decreases in concentrations of some persistent organic pollutants. Trends in Adélie penguins and Southern fulmars fit in a general pattern revealed by a broad literature review. Downward trends are also visible in pelagic fish, contrasting sharply with steady or increasing concentrations in Antarctic benthic organisms. Transfer of contaminants between Antarctic pelagic and benthic food webs is associated with seasonal sea-ice dynamics which may influence the balance between the final receptors of contaminants under different climatic conditions. This complicates the predictability of future trends of emerging compounds in the Antarctic ecosystem, such as of the brominated compounds that we detected in Antarctic petrels. The discrepancy in trends between pelagic and benthic organisms shows that Antarctic biota are still final receptors of globally released organic contaminants and it remains questionable whether the total environmental burden of contaminants in the Antarctic ecosystem is declining.

Aspects of the biology of Glaciopsyllus antarcticus (Siphonaptera: Ceratophyllidae) during the breeding season of a host (Fulmarus glacialoides)

SummaryThe breeding period of the Antarctic flea, Glaciopsyllus antarcticus (Smit and Dunnet), was synchronised with the breeding period of the host, Southern Fulmar (Fulmarus glacialoides Smith). Although eggs were laid in the host nest, larvae developed amongst the down (particularly on the belly) of host chicks. Larvae were blood feeders and pupated amongst the down of host chicks. The development of pupae was arrested by ambient temperatures (mean temperature of +2.5°C in January), but recommenced when pupae were warmed. Female fleas comprised 55.8% of a collection of 1988 adults. Low numbers of adult fleas were found in nests prior to host breeding and subsequent to host fledging in comparison to numbers on the host; adults are therefore presumed to overwinter on the host, remote from the nest.

Plastic and Restricted Heavy Metals

Plastic has become an integral part of our daily life and its use is increasing. In 2014 the worldwide production has reached an all time high of 311 million tons. Single use-packaging, mainly food, accounts for almost 40% of the total production in the EU. Modern plastics for food packaging have to be safe (EU Commission Regulation, 2011), but is this always the case? In PET, used for instance in bottles and tea bags, a toxic leftover of the catalyst Sb2O3 can be found. These leftovers could migrate from plastic into the beverage. Could the inheritance of the past contaminate the future? Carbon-based plastics are thermodynamically metastable and will degrade over time. Heavy metals are firmly bound in plastic but degradation could accelerate migration of heavy metals. In the past the Life Cycle Assessment was linear: after usage plastic became waste and ended mainly as landfill or thermal recycling. Under consumer and political pressure the EU indicated that it has to become a circular economy. Plastics of durable applications, like cars, electronics, and crates, make recycling more difficult. During their functional life new regulations have been introduced. In the EU several regulations have been developed over the past decades, the recycled raw materials of recyclates could be contaminated with the inheritance of the past. Nowadays plastic is found littering the environment in large quantities. The ingestion of plastic by seabirds is best known and monitored, but the phenomenon of ingesting plastics is widespread among all marine biota (Kühn et al., 2015). New investigations prove that plastics loaded with heavy metals are found in the environment, which when ingested by wildlife may pose specific additional toxicity risks which we investigate in the JPI Oceans PLASTOX project.

What Do We Know About the Ecological Impacts of Microplastic Debris

C.M. Rochman, M.A. Browne, A.J. Underwood, J.A. van Franeker, R.C. Thompson and L.A. Amaral-Zettler University of California, Davis, CA, United States University of California, Santa Barbara, CA United States University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia Institute for Marine Research and Ecosystem Studies IMARES, Texel, The Netherlands Plymouth University, Plymouth, United Kingdom Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution, Woods Hole, MA, United States Brown University, Providence, RI, United States

PLASTOX: Direct and indirect ecotoxicological impacts of microplastics on marine organisms

The PLASTOX project will investigate the ingestion, foodweb transfer, and ecotoxicological impact of microplastics, together with persistent organic pollutants (POPs), metals and plastic additive chemicals associated with them, on key European marine species and ecosystems. It will also study the temporal dynamics of microplastics colonisation by microbial communities in the field and the influence of microbial biofilms on ingestion rates and POP toxicity. The influence of microplastics physicochemical properties (size, shape, surface area and composition) on these processes will be evaluated. PLASTOX will combine field-based observations, laboratory tests, mesocosm and manipulative field experiments to study the ecological effects of microplastics.