Madhavi Bhatia, National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research, Guwahati
Plastic pollution causes harm to humans, plants, and animals through the ingestion of toxic pollutants. It takes almost hundreds to thousands of years for the plastic to degrade resulting in long-lasting environmental damage. Plastic debris has now become the most ubiquitous and long-lasting pressure on marine systems. This debris can approximately interact with about 700 species. Plastic presents danger by ingestion, entanglement, degradation of key habitats, and wider ecosystem effects. It has been recognized that plastic ingestion occurs in all species of marine turtles. In addition to this, some synthetic particles (<1 mm) have also been isolated from the gut contents of marine turtles.
Plastic ingestion in Post-hatchling marine turtles
A study was conducted on the small juvenile turtles from the Pacific and the Indian Ocean, it was found that there was a high incidence of plastic ingestion. It was dominated by filamentous pieces which were green and blue. These pieces were polyethylene, nylon, and polypropylene in composition. These polymers can contribute to ALDFG in the environment. Polyethylene and polypropylene are low-density polymers typically used for single-use, disposable packaging material. It constitutes significant proportions of the waste stream leaking. These polymers dominate sea surface samples but there is a decrease in abundance through the water column and a different polymer mix will be found again on the seafloor due to chemical densities. It is observed that smaller post-hatchlings experience the highest body burden of plastic debris.
Interaction between marine turtles and plastic
The probability of interaction between marine turtles and plastic occurs due to various reasons like feeding ecology and habitat use of the species, life stages, and also the spatial distribution of plastic in the marine environment. Floating material on the surfaces contains potentially high levels of harmful plastic pollution. This makes the life stage particularly susceptible to floating plastic ingestion, as the turtles feed at or near the ocean surface in the search for planktonic prey.
Flatback turtles
The Australian flatback turtle lacks an oceanic development phase, stills it shows plastic ingestion. There is the presence of buoyant plastics which indicates that the turtles are foraging at the surface even though they are capable of benthic dives from an early stage. This is particularly seen in the Great Reef waters, feeding the planktonic organisms.
Conclusion
Small juveniles present in the Western Pacific and the East Indian Ocean have a high incidence of plastic ingestion. In the future, methods should be developed to assess in live, in-situ specimens to assess the plastic burden in the developmental stages of life. Along with this, it is important to understand the dispersal and foraging ecology of cryptic life stages for understanding the vulnerability in the context of the presence of plastic pollution. It is important to understand the physiological and population impacts of plastic pollution on marine turtles.
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Reference– Duncan, E. M., Broderick, A. C., Critchell, K., Galloway, T. S., Hamann, M., Limpus, C. J., Lindeque, P. K., Santillo, D., Tucker, A. D., Whiting, S., Young, E. J., & Godley, B. J. (2021). Plastic pollution and small juvenile marine turtles: A potential evolutionary trap. Frontiers in Marine Science, 0. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.699521
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About the author– Madhavi Bhatia is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from NIPER, Guwahati. Her area of interest lies in understanding the role of gene mutation in the development of various diseases and developing a treatment for such diseases.
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