Social media as a novel source of data on the impact of marine litter on megafauna: The Philippines as a case study

Assessing the scale and ecological impact of derelict and discarded fishing gear across Thailand via the MARsCI citizen science protocol

South-East Asia is among the least studied regions for the growing issue of marine debris pollution, despite being a major contributor towards global marine debris. In the present study, we provide the preliminary results from the MARsCI project, a survey protocol designed to utilise citizen science to facilitate data collection on the ecological impact of discarded fishing gear (DFG) in Thailand. Over a three-year period, 103 surveys were carried out across Thailand, resulting in impact assessment of 606 pieces of DFG. Our findings indicate corals are regularly impacted by DFG in Thai waters and that isolated marine habitats may be more severely impacted than near-shore sites. We further identify crabs, muricid snails, and demersal fish to be among the most regularly entangled animals. We discuss our findings in the context of earlier work from Thailand, and conduct a critical review of the protocol itself, identifying improvements for future efforts.

A macroplastic vulnerability index for marine mammals, seabirds, and sea turtles in Hawai'i

Plastic pollution is having devastating consequences for marine organisms across the planet. However, the population level effects of macroplastic pollution remain difficult and costly to quantify. As a result, there is a need for alternative approaches to evaluate species risk to plastic pollution and inform management needs. We apply a trait-based framework for macroplastic pollution to develop a relative vulnerability index-informed by three dimensions: likelihood of exposure, species' sensitivity, and population resilience-for marine mammals, seabirds, and sea turtles found in Hawai'i. This index ranks 63 study species based on their population level vulnerability to macroplastic pollution, with the highest scoring species being the most vulnerable. Our results indicate that ducks, waders, and noddies with large populations were the least vulnerable to macroplastics, while the most vulnerable were the Hawaiian monk seal, sea turtles, baleen whales, and some albatross and petrel species. This index can inform species in need of population monitoring in Hawai'i, and direct other management priorities (e.g., locations for clean-ups or booms). More broadly, this work exemplifies the value of qualitative risk assessment approaches for better understanding the population level effects of macroplastic pollution and showcases how vulnerability indices can be used to inform management priorities.

Increasing biodiversity knowledge through social media: A case study from tropical Bangladesh

Citizen science programs are becoming increasingly popular among naturalists but remain heavily biased taxonomically and geographically. However, with the explosive popularity of social media and the near-ubiquitous availability of smartphones, many post wildlife photographs on social media. Here, we illustrate the potential of harvesting these data to enhance our biodiversity understanding using Bangladesh, a tropical biodiverse country, as a case study. We compared biodiversity records extracted from Facebook with those from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), collating geospatial records for 1013 unique species, including 970 species from Facebook and 712 species from GBIF. Although most observation records were biased toward major cities, the Facebook records were more evenly spatially distributed. About 86% of the Threatened species records were from Facebook, whereas the GBIF records were almost entirely Of Least Concern species. To reduce the global biodiversity data shortfall, a key research priority now is the development of mechanisms for extracting and interpreting social media biodiversity data.

Interactions between marine megafauna and plastic pollution in Southeast Asia

Southeast (SE) Asia is a highly biodiverse region, yet it is also estimated to cumulatively contribute a third of the total global marine plastic pollution. This threat is known to have adverse impacts on marine megafauna, however, understanding of its impacts has recently been highlighted as a priority for research in the region. To address this knowledge gap, a structured literature review was conducted for species of cartilaginous fishes, marine mammals, marine reptiles, and seabirds present in SE Asia, collating cases on a global scale to allow for comparison, coupled with a regional expert elicitation to gather additional published and grey literature cases which would have been omitted during the structured literature review. Of the 380 marine megafauna species present in SE Asia, but also studied elsewhere, we found that 9.1 % and 4.5 % of all publications documenting plastic entanglement (n = 55) and ingestion (n = 291) were conducted in SE Asian countries. At the species level, published cases of entanglement from SE Asian countries were available for 10 % or less of species within each taxonomic group. Additionally, published ingestion cases were available primarily for marine mammals and were lacking entirely for seabirds in the region. The regional expert elicitation led to entanglement and ingestion cases from SE Asian countries being documented in 10 and 15 additional species respectively, highlighting the utility of a broader approach to data synthesis. While the scale of the plastic pollution in SE Asia is of particular concern for marine ecosystems, knowledge of its interactions and impacts on marine megafauna lags behind other areas of the world, even after the inclusion of a regional expert elicitation. Additional funding to help collate baseline data are critically needed to inform policy and solutions towards limiting the interactions of marine megafauna and plastic pollution in SE Asia.

'Eye in the sky': Off-the-shelf unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) highlights exposure of marine turtles to floating litter (FML) in nearshore waters of Mayo Bay, Philippines

Litter is a serious threat to the marine environment, with detrimental effects on wildlife and marine biodiversity. Limited data as a result of funding and logistical challenges in developing countries hamper our understanding of the problem. Here, we employed commercial unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as a cost-effective tool to study the exposure of marine turtles to floating marine litter (FML) in waters of Mayo Bay, Philippines. A quadcopter UAV was flown autonomously with on-board camera capturing videos during the flight. Still frames were extracted when either turtle or litter were detected in post-flight processing. The extracted frames were georeferenced and mapped using QGIS software. Results showed that turtles are highly exposed to FML in nearshore waters. Moreover, spatial dependence between FML and turtles was also observed. The study highlights the effectiveness of UAVs in marine litter research and underscores the threat of FML to turtles in nearshore waters.

Priorities to inform research on marine plastic pollution in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia is considered to have some of the highest levels of marine plastic pollution in the world. It is therefore vitally important to increase our understanding of the impacts and risks of plastic pollution to marine ecosystems and the essential services they provide to support the development of mitigation measures in the region. An interdisciplinary, international network of experts (Australia, Indonesia, Ireland, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam) set a research agenda for marine plastic pollution in the region, synthesizing current knowledge and highlighting areas for further research in Southeast Asia. Using an inductive method, 21 research questions emerged under five non-predefined key themes, grouping them according to which: (1) characterise marine plastic pollution in Southeast Asia; (2) explore its movement and fate across the region; (3) describe the biological and chemical modifications marine plastic pollution undergoes; (4) detail its environmental, social, and economic impacts; and, finally, (5) target regional policies and possible solutions. Questions relating to these research priority areas highlight the importance of better understanding the fate of marine plastic pollution, its degradation, and the impacts and risks it can generate across communities and different ecosystem services. Knowledge of these aspects will help support actions which currently suffer from transboundary problems, lack of responsibility, and inaction to tackle the issue from its point source in the region. Being profoundly affected by marine plastic pollution, Southeast Asian countries provide an opportunity to test the effectiveness of innovative and socially inclusive changes in marine plastic governance, as well as both high and low-tech solutions, which can offer insights and actionable models to the rest of the world.

The scope and extent of literature that maps threats to species globally: a systematic map

BACKGROUND

Human activities are driving accelerating rates of species extinctions that continue to threaten nature's contribution to people. Yet, the full scope of where and how human activities threaten wild species worldwide remains unclear. Furthermore, the large diversity of approaches and terminology surrounding threats and threat mapping presents a barrier to understanding the state of knowledge and uptake into decision-making. Here, we define 'threats' as human activities and direct human-initiated processes, specifically where they co-occur with, and impact the survival of, wild species. Our objectives were to systematically consolidate the threat mapping literature, describe the distribution of available evidence, and produce a publicly available and searchable database of articles for easy uptake of evidence into future decision-making.

METHODS

Four bibliographic databases, one web-based search engine, and thirteen organisational websites were searched for peer-reviewed and grey-literature published in English 2000-2020. A three-stage screening process (title, abstract, and full-text) and coding was undertaken by two reviewers, with consistency tested on 20% of articles at each stage. Articles were coded according to 22 attributes that captured dimensions of the population, threat, and geographic location studied in addition to methodological attributes. The threats studied were classified according to the IUCN Red List threat classification scheme. A range of graphical formats were used to visualise the distribution of evidence according to these attributes and complement the searchable database of articles.

REVIEW FINDINGS

A total of 1069 relevant threat mapping studies were found and included in the systematic map, most conducted at a sub-national or local scale. Evidence was distributed unevenly among taxonomic groups, ecological realms, and geographies. Although articles were found for the full scope of threat categories used, most articles mapped a single threat. The most heavily mapped threats were alien invasive species, aquatic or terrestrial animal exploitation, roads and railways, residential development, and non-timber crop and livestock agriculture. Limitations regarding the English-only search and imperfect ability of the search to identify grey literature could have influenced the findings.

CONCLUSIONS

This systematic map represents a catalogue of threat mapping evidence at any spatial scale available for immediate use in threat reduction activities and policy decisions. The distribution of evidence has implications for devising actions to combat the threats specifically targeted in the post-2020 UN Biodiversity Framework, and for identifying other threats that may benefit from representation in global policy. It also highlights key gaps for further research to aid national and local-scale threat reduction. More knowledge would be particularly beneficial in the areas of managing multiple threats, land-based threats to marine systems, and threats to plant species and threats within the freshwater realm.

The impact of marine debris on cetaceans with consideration of plastics generated by the COVID-19 pandemic

The accumulation of human-derived debris in the oceans is a global concern and a serious threat to marine wildlife. There is a volume of evidence that points to deleterious effects of marine debris (MD) on cetaceans in terms of both entanglement and ingestion. This review suggests that about 68% of cetacean species are affected by interacting with MD with an increase in the number of species reported to have interacted with it over the past decades. Despite the growing body of evidence, there is an ongoing debate on the actual effects of plastics on cetaceans and, in particular, with reference to the ingestion of microplastics and their potential toxicological and pathogenic effects. Current knowledge suggests that the observed differences in the rate and nature of interactions with plastics are the result of substantial differences in species-specific diving and feeding strategies. Existing projections on the production, use and disposal of plastics suggest a further increase of marine plastic pollution. In this context, the contribution of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to marine plastic pollution appears to be substantial, with potentially serious consequences for marine life including cetaceans. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic offers an opportunity to investigate the direct links between industry, human behaviours and the effects of MD on cetaceans. This could help inform management, prevention efforts, describe knowledge gaps and guide advancements in research efforts. This review highlights the lack of assessments of population-level effects related to MD and suggests that these could be rather immediate for small populations already under pressure from other anthropogenic activities. Finally, we suggest that MD is not only a pollution, economic and social issue, but also a welfare concern for the species and populations involved.

Taking a mass-balance approach to assess marine plastics in the South China Sea

The South China Sea (SCS) is recognised as a global hotspot for plastic pollution. We review available field studies and identify a significant lack of data needed to construct a simple mass balance box model for plastic pollution in the SCS. Fundamental information on plastic mass input, transfer and sink terms are simply not available. Also unknown are the rates of accumulation in different environments, the dispersal pathways of plastic particles of different density, the residence times of plastic in the water column and the rate at which macroplastics are transformed into microplastics in different environments. Filling these information gaps is critical for states to determine adequate response measures, including developing and tracking impact of policies to deal with the problem of plastic pollution in the SCS.

Twitter data analysis to assess the interest of citizens on the impact of marine plastic pollution

Few studies have mined social media platforms to assess environmental concerns. In this study, Twitter was scraped to obtain a ~140,000 tweet dataset related specifically to marine plastic pollution. The goal is to understand what kind of users profiles are tweeting and how and when they do it. In addition, topic modelling and graph theory techniques have allowed us to identify main concerns on this topic: i) impact on wildlife, ii) microplastics/water pollution, iii) estimates/reports, iv) legislation/protection, and v) recycling/cleaning initiatives. Results reveal a scarce influence of organizations involved in research and marine environmental awareness, so some guidelines are depicted that could help to adjust their communication plans. This is relevant to engage society through reliable information, change habits and reinforce sustainable behaviour. A visualization tool has been created to analyze the results over time.

The potential contribution of bloggers to change lifestyle and reduce plastic use and pollution: A small data approach

Awareness raising and public engagement are key steps towards the reduction of demand, use and pollution related to plastic in everyday life. However, people not already active in this respect, nor seeking information about, may remain excluded from the main information flow. We therefore involved a professional blogger-posting on family lifestyle and travel with children- in the preparation of six thematic posts, each one dealing with a specific plastic-related topic. Given the size and the target of the initiative, results were considered in a small data approach: social-media parameters such as reaches and engagements overall aligned with blog followers' expected response in terms of engagement rates. However, high fluctuations were recorded, depending on the post topic. Such potential to reach blog readers and to highlight gaps at fine scale is encouraging the collaborations of professional bloggers with thematic campaigns, developed together with specialists of the topics considered.

The nexus of macroplastic and microplastic research and plastic regulation policies in the Philippines marine coastal environments

The Philippines was reported as one of the top plastic polluters (macroplastics and microplastics (MPs)) to the marine coastal environment, which necessitated the development and enforcement of plastic regulation policies. However, the nexus between the growing research on macroplastic/MP and the plastic regulation policies in the country is unexplored. Current review suggests that macroplastic/MP research in the Philippines is still in its infancy owing to methodological and technological constraints to apportion the sources and fluxes, characterize macroplastics/MPs, and identify influencing socio-environmental factors. While government efforts are underway, it is also unclear if local researches on macroplastics/MPs were the basis in institutionalizing the existing plastic regulation policies. Therefore the nexus between the researches carried out on this problem and the policies enforced cannot be concluded. Overall, this review presents gaps on the macroplastic/MP research needing more work on the problem to establish a sound science plastic regulation policy.

Perspectives on Micro(Nano)Plastics in the Marine Environment: Biological and Societal Considerations

Marine litter is a global problem which has been negatively affecting the environment. Plastic materials are the most commonly found marine debris, with potential biological (not only for aquatic organisms but also for humans) as well as socio-economic impacts. Considering that it is an anthropogenic problem, society could play an important role to minimize it. Although a considerable amount of research has addressed the biological effects of plastics (micro(nano)plastics) on biota, few studies have addressed how scientific information is being transmitted to the public and the potential role of citizen environmental education. The current paper discusses known effects, researched topics and how scientific knowledge is currently being transmitted to the public.

Analysis of the Filipinos' Interest in Searching Online for Oral Cancer

Objective:

This study analyzed the health-seeking behavior of Filipinos through relative search volume in Google Trends using oral cancer, mouth cancer, tongue cancer, gum cancer, and lip cancer as predetermined search terms.

Methods:

Comma-separated values files containing relative search volumes of search trends pertaining to oral cancer from 2009 to 2019 were assessed. Brown-Forsythe one-way ANOVA was used to measure differences of oral cancer between years and among months. Repeated measures two-way ANOVA measured differences among the searches for mouth cancer, tongue cancer, gum cancer, and lip cancer through the years. Time series models were fitted and used to forecast search interests.

Results:

The results revealed that interests in oral cancer were significantly higher in 2019 (43.75±5.5, p<0.05) compared to 2009 (29.0 ± 6.7). In terms of months, searches were higher in February (45.0 ± 6.6) compared to May (24.8 ± 3.4, p=0.015), June (25.3 ± 4.4, p=0.020), and December (26.5 ± 4.0, p=0.038). Search interests for gum cancer and lip cancer remained significantly lower from 2011 to 2019, and tongue cancer from 2016 to 2018 but approximated mouth cancer in 2019. The forecast shows mouth cancer (31.67%), tongue cancer (23.75%), and lip cancer (3.83%) fluctuating through the year, while gum cancer (8%) will remain steady in 2020.

Conclusion:

Health-seeking behavior through search trends show an increased interest in oral cancer in 2019 and during February. Search interests will fluctuate in 2020, but at the end of the year will decrease for mouth cancer and tongue cancer, will increase for lip cancer, and will remain steady for gum cancer.

Marine debris ingestion and human impacts on the Pygmy sperm whale (Kogia breviceps) in southern Brazil

Pygmy sperm whales, Kogia breviceps (Kogiidae), are a small cetacean that inhabits Mesopelagic regions near the continental shelf. In this study we present record of plastic ingestion by K. breviceps in Brazil. In August 2010 on the coast of Rio Grande do Sul, a carcass was found showing evidences of interaction with fishing nets. The stomach content was collected for the analysis of food items, but the presence of four plastics weighing 55.9 g was found. In addition, the analysis of food items revealed the presence of the fish Merluccius hubbsi, which is an intensely explored species by fisheries activities in southern Brazil. Merluccius sp. is common in the diet of K. breviceps in several regions of the planet. This work shows that in southern Brazil, K. breviceps suffers intense impact of both ingestion of anthropic material and fisheries, and so must be closely monitored.