Susanne Kühn

Wageningen University & Research | WUR · Wageningen Marine Research

This review quantifies plastic interaction in marine biota. Firstly, entanglement and ingestion records for all marine birds, mammals, turtles, fish, and invertebrate species, are summarized from 747 studies. Marine debris affected 914 species through entanglement and/or ingestion. Ingestion was recorded for 701 species, entanglement was documented...

For this study, the transfer of plastic additives to stomach oil of northern fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) has been investigated. Procellariiform seabirds retain oily components of their prey in theirs stomach as a means to store energy. A marine litter-derived microplastic reference mixture and separately a marine litter-derived polystyrene sample...

Monitoring plastic in stomachs of beached northern fulmars for OSPAR’s Ecological Quality Objectives (EcoQOs) has been incorporated into the European Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). This paper aims to provide the appropriate tools to interpret the monitoring results. MSFD requires a data-derived threshold value (Fulmar-TV) representing...

Anthropogenic debris, including plastic pollution, is a growing concern in the Arctic and negatively impacts both marine and coastal organisms. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential for using Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) faeces as a monitoring tool for plastic pollution in the Arctic environment. Arctic fox faeces were collected in...

We collected data on mass mortality in Sandwich terns (Thalasseus sandvicensis) during the 2022 breeding season in the Netherlands. Mortality was associated with at least 2 variants of highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) virus clade 2.3.4.4b. We report on carcass removal efforts relative to survival in colonies. Mitigation strategies urgently...

Since the 1960s, many marine species are known to ingest plastic; however, the extent of plastic uptake can differ per species. Of all seabirds, the order of the tubenoses (Procellariiformes) seems to be most susceptible to plastic ingestion. One species of this order, the northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) belongs to the best-studied species in...

Marine debris is now a ubiquitous component of the Anthropocene global ocean. Plastic ingestion by marine wildlife was first reported in the 1960s and since that time, roughly one thousand marine species have been reported to consume this debris. This study focuses on plastic ingestion by marine invertebrates and vertebrates in the North Pacific Oc...

Concerns about the impact of plastics pollution on the environment have been growing since the 1970s. Marine debris has reportedly entangled and/or been ingested by 914 marine species ranging from microinvertebrates to large marine mammals. Shorebirds could have a high potential to be exposed to and ingest plastics pollution, as many species migrat...

A sample of 145 stomachs from fulmars hunted 100 km offshore east Greenland 64° 30′ N in early June 2015 was analysed for abundance of plastic litter. Overall, 86% of the stomachs contained plastics with an average of 13.5 particles, and 0.14 g per stomach. A proportion of 42% of the stomachs exceeded the level of 0.1 g plastic, whereas the interna...

This report presents OSPAR beach litter assessment 2022, which is a part of the OSPAR Quality Status Report 2023. Key Message. Currently 51% of beached North Sea fulmars have more than 0,1 g of plastics in their stomachs, exceeding the Fulmar Threshold Value (Fulmar-TV) of 10%. This reflects the abundance of floating litter and provides an indic...

The annual report on plastics in fulmars, collected along the Dutch coasts, has been published, adding new data from the year 2020. The amount of plastics decreases and, therefore, follows the trend observed in recent years.

Although ingestion of plastic by tubenosed seabirds has been documented regularly, identification of the polymer composition of these plastics has rarely been described. Polymer assessment may assist in identifying sources and may indicate risks from additives occurring in specific types of polymers. Using known test materials, two identification m...

In the framework of the EU JPI PLASTOX project, this PhD project focused on the effects of ingested plastic on marine wildlife and in particular the northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis). Plastic ingestion by fulmars was studied on Iceland and on Svalbard. Trophic transfer of plastic between predators and their prey was explored, by quantifying plas...

This study combines published datasets with unpublished data on plastic ingestion in several North Sea fish species. The combined dataset of 4389 individuals from 15 species allows the analysis of spatial distribution and temporal variability of plastic uptake in fish. Airborne fibre contamination was observed to be the main contributor to fibres e...

А dead male Short-tailed Shearwater was found on 25 June 2019 on the tundra 4 km away from the coast of the Knipovich Bay, northern Taimyr Peninsula (76°05′18″ N, 98°26′29″ E). It is the first record of this species in the western sector of the Russian Arctic.

Marine plastic pollution is an environmental contaminant of significant concern. There is a lack of consistency in sample collection and processing that continues to impede meta-analyses and largescale comparisons across time and space. This is true for most taxa, including seabirds, which are the most studied megafauna group with regards to plasti...

Update on the OSPAR and EU-Marine Strategy Directive monitoring of plastic particles in stomachs of Northern Fulmars in Denmark up to 2017. Currently, in Denmark, 54% of beached fulmars exceed the threshold of 0.1 gram (sample of 13 fulmars 2013-2017: all birds contained some plastic, on average 25 particles per stomach, weighing 0.16 gram). Over t...

Studies investigating the effects of plastic litter on marine biota have almost exclusively utilised pristine plastic materials that are homogeneous in polymer type, size, shape and chemical composition. This is particularly the case for microplastics (<5 mm), where collecting sufficient quantities from the marine environment for use in laboratory...

The ‘footprint’ of a specialised creature of habit: lesser black-backed gull eats greater pipefish A lesser black-backed gull Larus fuscus was observed eating a greater pipefish Syngnathus acus on the ferry from the island of Texel to the Dutch mainland on 26 April 2018. The gull repeatedly grabbed the pipefish by its head, shook and pecked it seve...

One of the recently recognised stressors in Arctic ecosystems concerns plastic litter. In this study, juvenile polar cod (Boreogadus saida) were investigated for the presence of plastics in their stomachs. Polar cod is considered a key species in the Arctic ecosystem. The fish were collected both directly from underneath the sea ice in the Eurasian...

this file version holds the online supplement in the same pdf file

Stomach contents of harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) collected in the Netherlands between 2003 and 2013 were inspected for the presence of plastic and other man-made litter. In 654 stomach samples the frequency of occurrence of plastic litter was 7% with less than 0.5% additional presence of nonsynthetic man-made litter. However, we show that...

Plastic pollution has become one of the largest environmental challenges we currently face. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has listed it as a critical problem, comparable to climate change, demonstrating both the scale and degree of the environmental problem. Mortalities due to entanglement in plastic fishing nets and bags have been...

In studies of plastic ingestion by marine wildlife, visual separation of plastic particles from gastrointestinal tracts or their dietary content can be challenging. Earlier studies have used solutions to dissolve organic materials leaving synthetic particles unaffected. However, insufficient tests have been conducted to ensure that different catego...

Monitoring data for plastic ingestion by fulmars beached on the Dutch coast show slow but significant decline in plastic mass in their stomachs over the period 2006-2015. The current situation however, with 53% of birds having more than 0.1g plastic in the stomach, is still far off the policy target made by North Sea governments of reducing that pe...

Plastic pollution is of worldwide concern; however, increases in international commercial activity in the Arctic are occurring without the knowledge of the existing threat posed to the local marine environment by plastic litter. Here, we quantify plastic ingestion by northern fulmars, Fulmarus glacialis, from Svalbard, at the gateway to future ship...

In this review we report new findings concerning interaction between marine debris and wildlife. Deleterious effects and consequences of entangle-ment, consumption and smothering are highlighted and discussed. The number of species known to have been affected by either entanglement or ingestion of plastic debris has doubled since 1997, from 267 to...

Marine filter feeders are exposed to microplastic because of their selection of small particles as food source. Baleen whales feed by filtering small particles from large water volumes. Macroplastic was found in baleen whales before. This study is the first to show the presence of microplastic in intestines of a baleen whale (Megaptera novaeangliae...

Summary The Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires EU member states to achieve good ecological and chemical status of all designated water bodies by 2015. Therefore Rijkswaterstaat Waterdienst has initiated the project ‘Research mud dynamics Ems Estuary’ (Onderzoek slibhuishouding Eems-Dollard). The aim of this project, carried out by Deltares...

Fulmars are purely offshore foragers that ingest all sorts of litter from the sea surface and do not regurgitate poorly degradable diet components like plastics. Initial size of ingested debris is usually in the range of millimetres to centimeters, but may be considerably larger for flexible items as for instance threadlike or sheetlike materials....

In 2011, northern fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) from Iceland were used to test the hypothesis that plastic debris decreases at northern latitudes in the Atlantic when moving away from major human centres of coastal and marine activities. Stomach analyses of Icelandic fulmars confirm that plastic pollution levels in the North Atlantic tend to decreas...

Het Friese Front, zoals omschreven en geografisch aangeduid in het rapport van Lindeboom et al. (2005) zal binnenkort worden aangewezen als Natura 2000 gebied. Vanwege de bijzondere status van het gebied is het belangrijk om te weten welke aantallen Zeekoeten het gebied bezoeken. De aantallen moeten daarom worden gevolgd, maar een monitoringsprogra...