Pressure and impact of anthropogenic litter on marine and estuarine reptiles: an updated “blacklist” highlighting gaps of evidence

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international 2019-01, Vol.26 (2), p.1238-1249
• Main Authors: Staffieri, Eleonora, de Lucia, Giuseppe Andrea, Camedda, Andrea, Poeta, Gianluca, Battisti, Corrado
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anthropogenic factors; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Blacklisting; Crocodiles; Crocodylia; Crocodylus porosus; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Entanglement; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental science; Estuaries; Human influences; Ingestion; Lepidochelys kempii; Litter; Marine debris; Microplastics; Natator depressus; Nomenclature; Plastic debris; Plastics; Pressure; Reptiles; Review Article; Species; Squamata; Testudines; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-018-3616-4

We report an arrangement on the effect of anthropogenic litter on marine and estuarine reptiles, checking for evidence about different types of impact (ingestion vs. entanglement) and pressure (three size-based categories). From 1976 to 2018, we obtained a “blacklist” of 11 species impacted by marine litter (about 13% of 85 species of marine and estuarine reptiles), belonging to three orders (Testudines, Squamata, and Crocodilia). We obtained only occasional evidence of an impact for Squamata ( Hidrophis elegans, Disteira major ) and Crocodilia ( Crocodylus porosus ). Regarding the different types of pressure, the highest number of evidence has been obtained for macro-litter (10 species) and the lowest for micro-litter (4 species, all Chelonidae). Among Testudines, Lepidochelys kempii and Natator depressus evidenced a lack of data for micro-plastic. In Squamata, information is lacking for micro-plastic with only occasional references for meso-plastic (in Hydrophis elegans ) and macro-plastic ( Disteira major and Crocodylus porosus ). We obtained a direct correlation between the research effort and the number of citations regarding different types of pressure and impact of marine litter: therefore, our blacklist of impacted species could be increased, carrying out further research focused on other poorly studied marine and estuarine reptiles. We suggest the use of a standardized nomenclature to reduce the amount of lost information.