Characterization of anthropogenic materials on yellow-legged gull ( Larus michahellis ) nests breeding in natural and ur
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Characterization of anthropogenic materials on yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis) nests breeding in natural and urban sites along the coast of Portugal Catarina S. Lopes 1
&
Joana Pais de Faria 1 & Vitor H. Paiva 1 & Jaime A. Ramos 1
Received: 4 March 2020 / Accepted: 8 June 2020 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Anthropogenic materials are a persistent pressure on ecosystems, affecting many species. Seabirds can collect these materials to construct their nests, which may modify nest characteristics and cause entanglement of chicks and adults, with possible consequences on breeding success. The incorporation of anthropogenic materials in nests of seabird species that breed in both natural and urban environments, such as gulls, is poorly known. Here, we characterize and compare anthropogenic materials incorporated in yellow-legged gull (Larus michahellis) nests from two natural and two urban breeding sites across their Portuguese breeding range and during 2 consecutive years. Anthropogenic materials were found in 2.6% and 15.4% of gull nests from natural locations and in 47.6% and 95.7% of nests from urban breeding sites. No differences were found on hatching success between urban and natural breeding colonies. A significantly higher number of anthropogenic materials were found in the largest and more populated urban breeding colony, which on average included items of a greater mass but smaller size than items from the other three colonies. The higher incorporation of anthropogenic materials in urban locations could be a consequence of a lower access to natural nest construction materials and higher availability of anthropogenic debris. The quantity and diversity of anthropogenic materials incorporated in gull nests from urban locations indicate a need for improved debris management in urban settlements. Keywords Gulls . Laridae . Larus michahellis . Nesting ecology . Urban . Plastic pollution . Hatching success
Introduction The presence of anthropogenic materials, i.e. debris items of any non-natural solid material (e.g. plastic, glass, fabric, metal, paper, among others; Seif et al. 2018), is a wellidentified anthropogenic pressure on ecosystems (Barnes et al. 2009; Provencher et al. 2017; Jagiello et al. 2019). These materials, especially plastics, are ubiquitous, longResponsible Editor: Philippe Garrigues Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09651-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Catarina S. Lopes [email protected] 1
University of Coimbra, MARE – Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, Department of Life Sciences, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456 Coimbra, Portugal
lasting and considered by the United Nations Environment Program as a critical problem for the environment (UNEP 2016). Over the last few years, plastic pollution in marine habitats has been widely studied (Law 2017) due to its rapid increase from coastlines to
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