Using Social Media to Determine the Global Distribution of Plastics in Birds’ Nests: The Role of Riverine Habitats

Luca Gallitelli, Corrado Battisti () and Massimiliano Scalici
Additional contact information
Luca Gallitelli: Department of Sciences, University of Roma Tre, Viale G. Marconi 446, 00146 Rome, Italy
Corrado Battisti: ‘Torre Flavia wetland’ LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) Station, Protected Areas Service, Città Metropolitana di Roma Capitale, 00148 Rome, Italy
Massimiliano Scalici: Department of Sciences, University of Roma Tre, Viale G. Marconi 446, 00146 Rome, Italy

Land, 2023, vol. 12, issue 3, 1-15

Abstract: Plastics are widely distributed in all ecosystems with evident impacts on biodiversity. We aimed at examining the topic of plastic occurrence within bird nests. We conducted a systematic search on three social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) to fill the gap of knowledge on plastic nests worldwide. As a result, we observed nests with plastics mostly belonging to synanthropic species inhabiting riverine habitats, mainly in Europe, North America, and Asia, with an increase in occurrence over the years. Two common and generalist freshwater species (Eurasian Coot Fulica atra and Swans Cygnus sp.) showed the highest frequency of occurrence of plastic debris. We suggest plastics in bird nests as a proxy for debris occurring in the environment. However, our data may be biased, due to our sample’s low representativeness. Therefore, more data are necessary to have more information on plastic distribution. In conclusion, social media might be pivotal in indicating plastic hotspot areas worldwide and being an indicator of plastic pollution within the environment.

Keywords: bird nest; social web platform; international plastic database; citizen science; plastic debris; riverine habitats (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/3/670/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/12/3/670/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:12:y:2023:i:3:p:670-:d:1095340

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().