No evidence of microplastic ingestion in emperor penguin chicks (Aptenodytes forsteri) from the Atka Bay colony (Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica)

• Published in: Science of The Total Environment
• Main Authors: Leistenschneider, Clara, Le Bohec, Céline, Eisen, Olaf, Houstin, Aymeric, Neff, Simon, Primpke, Sebastian, Zitterbart, Daniel, Burkhardt-Holm, Patricia
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Elsevier 2022
• Subjects: Aptenodytes forsteri; Microplastics; ATR-FTIR; Stomach content; Antarctica; Weddell Sea & Dronning Maud Land; Antarctic; Atka; Austral; Dronning Maud Land; Southern Ocean; Weddell; Weddell Sea; Antarc*; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/1912/29746

© The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Leistenschneider, C., Le Bohec, C., Eisen, O., Houstin, A., Neff, S., Primpke, S., Zitterbart, D., Burkhardt-Holm, P., & Gerdts, G. No evidence of microplastic ingestion in emperor penguin chicks (Aptenodytes forsteri) from the Atka Bay colony (Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica). Science of The Total Environment, (2022): 158314, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158314. Microplastic (<5 mm; MP) pollution has been an emerging threat for marine ecosystems around the globe with increasing evidence that even the world's most remote areas, including Antarctica, are no longer unaffected. Few studies however, have examined MP in Antarctic biota, and especially those from Antarctic regions with low human activity, meaning little is known about the extent to which biota are affected. The aim of this study was to investigate, for the first time, the occurrence of MP in the emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri), the only penguin species breeding around Antarctica during the austral winter, and an endemic apex predator in the Southern Ocean. To assess MP ingestion, the gizzards of 41 emperor penguin chicks from Atka Bay colony (Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica), were dissected and analyzed for MP >500 μm using Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier-transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy. A total of 85 putative particles, mostly in the shape of fibers (65.9 %), were sorted. However, none of the particles were identified as MP applying state-of-the-art methodology. Sorted fibers were further evidenced to originate from contamination during sample processing and analyses. We find that MP concentrations in the local food web of the Weddell Sea and Dronning Maud Land coastal and marginal sea-ice regions; the feeding grounds to chick-rearing emperor penguin adults, are currently at such low levels that no detectable biomagnification is occurring via trophic ...