01_sources-for-plastic-ingestion-data
This is the list of papers extracted from our literature searches, along with whether they were relevant (or not) and thus included in dataset 02_plastic-ingestion-data. Full details of data collection are in the Supplementary Materials of the paper.
In brief, papers were identified using Web of Science and/or Google Scholar searches using the following search terms:
- “seabird* plastic OR debris OR pollution”
- “plastic gull OR shearwater OR albatross OR petrel OR penguin OR puffin OR auk OR guillemot OR murre OR tern OR skua OR jaeger OR frigatebird OR booby OR gannet OR cormorant OR shag OR tropicbird OR merganser OR pelican OR phalarope OR scoter OR eider OR fulmar OR prion OR noddy OR gannet OR loon OR diver”.
We considered peer-reviewed papers, research reports, conference proceedings and theses published to the end of 2024 and spanning 387 seabird species as defined by Gaston (2004), excluding eight extinct species (Bulweria bifax, Camptorhynchus labradorius, Hydrobates macrodactylus, Mergus australis, Pinguinus impennis, Pterodroma caribbaea, Pterodroma rupinarum, and Urile perspicillatus). We excluded articles and reports on species occurring only in freshwater, extinct species, captive populations, and studies reporting on cases of plastic entanglement or ingestion of non-plastic items, such as studies that pooled plastic with non-plastic marine debris (e.g., metal fishing hooks, natural fibres, artificially treated cellulose, rubber and glass). Both plastic-focused research and research where plastic was found incidentally, such as in traditional diet studies, were included. Plastics of all types (e.g., fragments, foam, sheets, fibres) and of all sizes were recorded. All publications discovered in literature searches were downloaded and recorded in 01_sources-for-plastic-ingestion-data, but only relevant studies were added to the dataset 02_plastic-ingestion-data.
Column contents are as follows.
- Source. Shortened name of the source, e.g. Author et al, YEAR. If not included in the main dataset 02_plastic-ingestion-data this is set to "Not relevant".
- Used. Indicates whether data from a particular source was used in the present study. Any papers labelled "Yes" were included in the 02_plastic-ingestion-data dataset. Sources marked as "Not relevant" or anything other other than "Yes" were not included in 02_plastic-ingestion-data. Reasons for papers being classed as "Not relevant" included irrelevance to the study's scope or redundancy with other sources. For example, sources may be excluded if they focus on topics like nest pollution, entanglement, distribution characterisation, or if they lack specificity regarding plastic ingestion. Duplicate information from other references was also a common reason for exclusion.
- Authors. Authors of the paper.
- Year. Year of publication.
- Link.plastic. Link to the paper.
- Title. Title of the paper.
- DOI. DOI of the paper
- Comments. Any comments added by data curators about the relevancy of the paper.
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Additional Information
| Last updated | 19 November 2025 |
|---|---|
| Created | unknown |
| Format | CSV |
| License | Creative Commons Attribution |
| Created | 10 months ago |
| Media type | text/csv |
| Size | 246,139 |
| format | CSV |
| id | 852cc3cd-a27a-43cc-a2fc-3760653c2f70 |
| last modified | 10 months ago |
| metadata modified | 7 months ago |
| package id | 4099c26a-b02a-4d0b-9f44-7f9d9ec44e5e |
| state | active |