First assessment of plastic pollution in juvenile Magellanicpenguins (Spheniscus magellanicus) from South Atlantic Coasts

TATIANA RECABARREN-VILLALÓN; ANA C. RONDA; LUCIANO LA SALA; CRISTINA SANHUEZA; LUCRECIA DÍAZ; LUCAS S. RODRÍGUEZ PIRANI; A. LORENA PICONE; ROSANA M. ROMANO; PABLO PETRACCI; ANDRÉS H. ARIAS

Conferencia; MICRO 2022: Plastic Pollution from MACRO to nano; 2022

Plastic pollution is a global problem and an improve knowledge in this regard is urgent tofind solutions. The aim of this work was to assess, for the first time, the occurrence, types andcomposition of plastic pollution in juvenile Magellanic penguins (Spheniscus magellanicus)stranded at different beaches from the southern Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Macro-,meso- and microplastic particles (MPs) were found in 100% of the gastrointestinal tract from21 individuals. Particle levels ranged from 33 to 200 items per individual. A total numberof 1609 particles were extracted and characterized, a 0.2% of particles were macroplastic,8.8% mesoplastics and 91% MPs, represented mostly by fibers (98.5%). A prevalence of thesmallest particles was found (< 1 mm; 35%), followed by 1-2 mm (33%) and 2-3 mm (19%).According to the color, black MPs were the most abundant (30%), followed by transparent(26%), blue (14%), yellow (14%), and red (10%). Infrared and Raman spectroscopies wereused to evaluate the chemical composition of the particles found. Most of the large parti-cles were identified as polypropylene (62%) followed by low-density polyethylene (23%) andhigh-density polyethylene (15%). For small plastic particles, polyester was the most abun-dant material (28%) followed by polypropylene (18%), polyethylene terephthalate (10%),polystyrene (4%) and polyethylene (3%). Materials such as viscose (4%), anthropogenic cel-lulosic (22%) and anthropogenic pigments (7%) were also found. These findings provide thefirst and southernmost evidence of plastic pollution in juvenile Magellanic penguins. Thecharacterization of these particles could help to identify possible sources of pollutants inthe South Atlantic waters and these data could be a basis for a review of policy measureson plastic pollution and the development of mitigation measures. Finally, stranded juvenileMagellanic penguins are postulated as promising plastic pollution bioindicators from SouthAtlantic waters.