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Estimating the size distribution of plastics ingested by animals
Open accessAbstract
The ingestion of plastics appears to be widespread throughout the animal kingdom with risks to individuals, ecosystems and human health. Despite growing information on the location, abundance and size distribution of plastics in the environment, it cannot be assumed that any given animal will ingest all sizes of plastic encountered. Here, we use published data to develop an allometric relationship between plastic consumption and animal size to estimate the size distribution of plastics feasibly ingested by animals. Based on more than 2000 gut content analyses from animals ranging over three orders of magnitude in size (lengths 9 mm to 10 m), body length alone accounts for 42% of the variance in the length of plastic an animal may ingest and indicates a size ratio of roughly 20:1 between animal body length and the largest plastic the animal may ingest. We expect this work to improve global assessments of plastic pollution risk by introducing a quantifiable link between animals and the plastics they can ingest.
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“PMD is also ingested by several marine organisms, including commercially important species.18,19,[87][88][89][90]”
From The fate of plastic in the ocean environment – a minireview (2021) · cites this paper as [89]
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BackgroundA Review of Sources, Hazards, and Removal Methods of Microplastics in the Environment
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BackgroundMethodResultInfluentialAssociation between blood microplastic levels and severity of extracranial artery stenosis
Yu, H., Li, H., Cui, C., Han, Y., Xiao, Y., Zhang, B., & Li, G. (2024) · Journal of Hazardous Materials · doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.136211 · Cited by 55
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Prevalence of microplastics and anthropogenic debris within a deep-sea food web
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“This general trend for increasing body size and microplastic ingestion is not yet well examined in the literature, but large-scale meta-analyses suggest that body length accounts for much of the variance in the length of plastic particles that animals ingest (Jâms et al. 2020).”
ResultFirst record of microplastic occurence at the commercial fish from Orontes River
Kılıç, E., Yücel, N., & Şahutoğlu, S. M. (2022) · Environmental Pollution · doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119576 · Cited by 45
Eisfeld-Pierantonio, S., Pierantonio, N., & Simmonds, M. P. (2022) · Environmental Pollution · doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2022.118967 · Cited by 44
Roman, L., Hardesty, B. D., & Schuyler, Q. A. (2022) · The Science of The Total Environment · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.156858 · Cited by 50
Lofty, J., Ouro, P., & Wilson, C. (2022) · The Science of The Total Environment · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.160893 · Cited by 51
Tuttle, E. E., Wiman, C., Muñoz, S. E., Law, K. L., & Stubbins, A. (2024) · Environmental Science & Technology · doi:10.1021/acs.est.3c07161 · Cited by 41
Microplastics in freshwater: Unveiling sources, fate, and removal strategies
Upadhyay, S., Sharma, P. K., Dogra, K., Bhattacharya, P., Kumar, M., Tripathi, V. S., & Karmakar, R. (2024) · Groundwater for Sustainable Development · doi:10.1016/j.gsd.2024.101185 · Cited by 45
Ingestion of Microplastics by Marine Animals
Courtene‐Jones, W., Clark, N. J., Fischer, A. C., Smith, N. S., & Thompson, R. C. (2022) · Wiley eBooks · doi:10.1002/9781119768432.ch12 · Cited by 43
Caldwell, A., Brander, S., Wiedenmann, J., Clucas, G., & Craig, E. (2022) · Marine Pollution Bulletin · doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.113560 · Cited by 33
Seasonal pulse effect of microplastics in the river catchment-From tributary catchment to mainstream
Xia, F., Wang, Y., Wang, D., Cai, Y., & Zhang, J. (2023) · Journal of Environmental Management · doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.118316 · Cited by 41
Gallitelli, L., Battisti, C., Pietrelli, L., & Scalici, M. (2022) · Environmental Science and Pollution Research · doi:10.1007/s11356-022-21032-0 · Cited by 41
Su, P., Wang, J., Zhang, D., Chu, K., Yao, Y., Sun, Q., Luo, Y., Zhang, R., Su, X., Wang, Z., et al. (2022) · Journal of Hazardous Materials · doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.129854 · Cited by 37
Behaviour, ecological impacts of microplastics and cadmium on soil systems: A systematic review
Li, F., Yang, X., Zhang, Z., Jiang, Y., & Gong, Y. (2024) · Environmental Technology & Innovation · doi:10.1016/j.eti.2024.103637 · Cited by 38
Feng, J., Zhao, H., Gong, X., Xia, M.-C., Cai, L., Yao, H., Zhao, X., Yan, Z., Li, Z., Nie, H., et al. (2021) · Analytical Chemistry · doi:10.1021/acs.analchem.0c05383 · Cited by 37
Occurrence and characterization of microplastic content in the digestive system of riverine fishes
Heshmati, S., Makhdoumi, P., Pirsaheb, M., Hossini, H., Ahmadi, S., & Fattahi, H. (2021) · Journal of Environmental Management · doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113620 · Cited by 35
Buwono, N. R., Risjani, Y., & Soegianto, A. (2022) · Environmental Pollution · doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119958 · Cited by 34
Lu, X., Zhang, L., Zhang, J., Wang, C., & Zhang, A. (2022) · ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces · doi:10.1021/acsami.2c11875 · Cited by 33
Galli, M., Tepsich, P., Baini, M., Panti, C., Rosso, M., Vafeiadou, A., Pantelidou, M., Moulins, A., & Fossi, M. C. (2022) · Marine Pollution Bulletin · doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2022.113550 · Cited by 36
Yu, C., Takhistov, P., Alocilja, E. C., Reyes-De-Corcuera, J. I., Frey, M. W., Gomes, C. L., Mao, Y., McLamore, E. S., Lin, M., Tsyusko, O. V., et al. (2022) · Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry · doi:10.1007/s00216-022-04069-5 · Cited by 34
“The size distribution of plastics ingested by animals was modeled based on more than 2000 gut content analyses [102].”
MethodGiani, D., Andolina, C., Baini, M., Panti, C., Sciandra, M., Vizzini, S., & Fossi, M. C. (2023) · Environmental Pollution · doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2023.121632 · Cited by 33
Ojeda, M., Cossi, P. F., Rimondino, G. N., Chiesa, I. L., Boy, C. C., & Pérez, A. F. (2021) · The Science of The Total Environment · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148866 · Cited by 32
Life on bottles: Colonisation of macroplastics by freshwater biota
Gallitelli, L., Cesarini, G., Sodo, A., Cera, A., & Scalici, M. (2023) · The Science of The Total Environment · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162349 · Cited by 31
Microplastic ingestion by coral as a function of the interaction between calyx and microplastic size
Hankins, C., Raimondo, S., & Lasseigne, D. (2021) · The Science of The Total Environment · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152333 · Cited by 30
Do flushed biodegradable wet wipes really degrade?
Allison, T., Ward, B. D., Harbottle, M., & Durance, I. (2023) · The Science of The Total Environment · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164912 · Cited by 32
“Moreover, additive contaminants can also adsorb onto cellulose fi bres in the environment, resulting in similar issues (Jâms et al., 2020; Adams et al., 2021).”
Self-citationKharraz, J. A., Jia, M., Farid, M. U., Khanzada, N. K., Hilal, N., Hasan, S. W., & An, A. K. (2023) · Journal of Water Process Engineering · doi:10.1016/j.jwpe.2023.104637 · Cited by 29
Niu, P., Zhao, Z., Zhu, J., Zhang, Z., Sun, A., Wei, L., & Li, Y. (2024) · Journal of Colloid and Interface Science · doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2024.08.243 · Cited by 29
Ecological risk assessment of marine plastic pollution
Zhang, Z., Wu, P., Wang, X., Pang, Q., Wang, Y., Zhang, X., Kvale, K., Zeng, E. Y., Lei, L., & Zhang, Y. (2025) · Nature Sustainability · doi:10.1038/s41893-025-01620-x · Cited by 32
“An approximate 20:1 ratio exists between the body length of an organism and the maximum ingestible plastic diameter 11 .”
InfluentialCurrent efforts on microplastic monitoring in Arctic fish and how to proceed
Kögel, T., Hamilton, B. M., Granberg, M., Provencher, J. F., Hammer, S., Gomiero, A., Magnusson, K., & Lusher, A. (2022) · Arctic Science · doi:10.1139/as-2021-0057 · Cited by 31
Metadata
- Authors
- Jâms, I. B., Windsor, F. M., Poudevigne-Durance, T., Ormerod, S. J., & Durance, I.
- Affiliations
- Cardiff University (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Durance, Isabelle
- Venue
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2020-03-27
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1594-1594
- ISSN
- 2041-1723 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7101383
- OpenAlex
- W3013106828
- Cited by
- 223
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 19 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 33 · 2023: 39 · 2022: 50 · 2021: 36 · 2020: 13
- FWCI
- 8.52
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Nature Communications (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ORCA Online Research @Cardiff (Cardiff University) (acceptedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Newcastle University ePrints (Newcastle Univesity) (cc-by)
- Funders
- Natural Environment Research Council (1642617, NE/L002434/, L002434)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Microplastics and Plastic Pollution
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Environmental Toxicology and Ecotoxicology
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Turtle Biology and Conservation
- Keywords
- plastic ingestion, allometric relationships, animal body size, gut content analysis, marine fauna, microplastics
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Eating, Environmental Monitoring, Environmental Pollution, Fishes, Particle Size, Plastics, Zooplankton, Ecosystem, Body Size
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