Seabird family tree predicts which species accumulate plastic better than diet, global analysis finds
What seabirds eat might seem like a good starting point for identifying species that tend to accumulate plastic in their digestive systems. Yet a recent global analysis suggests that mapping the evolutionary relatives of birds could offer better clues than their diets or feeding methods alone.
Researchers from the University of Queensland and the Natural History Museum in London, along with other institutions, analyzed data from 93,281 birds belonging to 240 distinct species to understand which factors predict plastic accumulation in seabirds. The study, published in Biology Letters, found that evolutionary relationships among birds were the strongest predictor of plastic occurrence, rather than diet, feeding method, body size, or specialization in open-ocean feeding.
About three-quarters of the sampled species had at least one recorded instance of plastic ingestion. The researchers combined data from 262 sources published between 1958 and 2024 and focused on the proportion of birds in each sample that showed signs of consuming plastic. Despite the limitations, such as not being able to distinguish ingestion from retention or determine plastic quantities, the study suggests that evolutionary relationships could be used as a preliminary tool to identify species likely to accumulate plastic.
Future research could generate accumulation-risk predictions for species without records and prioritize sampling for birds with higher predicted risk.
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