Diet analysis and the assessment of plastic and other indigestible anthropogenic litter in the white stork pellets

Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60460709%3A41330%2F24%3A98651" target="_blank" >RIV/60460709:41330/24:98651 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11356-023-31710-2" target="_blank" >https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11356-023-31710-2</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-31710-2" target="_blank" >10.1007/s11356-023-31710-2</a>

Result language
angličtina
Original language name
Diet analysis and the assessment of plastic and other indigestible anthropogenic litter in the white stork pellets
Original language description
Pollution by anthropogenic litter is a major threat to global ecosystems. Seabirds are frequently used as environmental monitors of litter ingestion, but similar research is rare for terrestrial birds. Here, we focused on pellet analysis from 117 nests of an iconic bird of the Western Palearctic, the white stork (Ciconia ciconia), breeding in southern and southwestern Poland in a farmland landscape, far away from large dumps and landfills. We found that most prey items in the diet of white storks were invertebrates (particularly from orders Coleoptera, Orthoptera, and Hymenoptera) but vertebrate prey comprised most of the biomass. Further analysis revealed that anthropogenic litter was found in 22.7% of pellets (34.2% of breeding pairs) with plastic (8.4%) and cigarette filters (6.9%) being most prevalent. This study represents the first assessment through pellet analysis of the ingestion of anthropogenic litter by live wild storks in Poland and also by a migratory population of white storks. Our study indicates a potentially significant transfer of plastic and other anthropogenic material through terrestrial food webs.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Type
J<sub>imp</sub> - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
10511 - Environmental sciences (social aspects to be 5.7)

Publication year
2024
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

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