♻️⬇️🚨NEW PAPER ALERT♻️⬇️🚨

Led by #AdriftLab’s PhD student and all-round superstar, Alix de Jersey, and co-authored by supervisors Jenn Lavers (@SeabirdSentinel), Graeme Zosky, and Jack Auty.

Access the paper here ➡️ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0269749123014616?via%3Dihub
(note: if you don’t have access, send us an email and we’ll provide the PDF)

RESEARCH SYNOPSIS: in this review article, we discuss the far-reaching, complex, and poorly understood threat that pollution poses for human and wildlife health. We argue #InterdisciplinaryResearch is crucial to encapsulate the diversity of these consequences. We highlight how applying advanced techniques and expertise adapted in medical research to wildlife exposed to pollutants offers a unique opportunity.

Additionally, we bring light to the challenges impeding the progress of this research including lack of funding. To do this, we obtained data on #funding for medical & biological research from major research councils for the last 20 years. Only 0.5% of available funds were dedicated to pollution-focused research and only 0.03% of this already tiny fraction was dedicated to explaining the #wildlife experience!! (read that again and let it sink in!) 😳👎

Paper title: “The understudied global experiment of pollution’s impacts on wildlife and human health”

#WomenInSTEM #TeamWork #PlasticPollution #ResearchFunding

Are you in #Sydney #Australia on 23 Sept? Come see #AdriftLab’s Dr Jenn Lavers @SeabirdSentinel speak about #ArtSci #collaboration & #PlasticPollution at Powerhouse Museum. The panel discussion will be feature Jetsam, an incredible table made of beach-washed #ocean #plastic (see photo!) by renowned furniture designer Brodie Neill 🌊♻️

Brodie lives in London, he kindly put Jenn’s name forward for this event. This created an important opportunity to limit #CO2 through not flying internationally - yay! In addition, as Jenn has committed to significantly reduce her own flying, she’ll be staying in the Sydney area for 3 weeks to attend a research paper #WritingRetreat, meet with colleagues, & complete critical #FieldWork on #LordHoweIsland.

Find out more and *book your ticket* by visiting our news page www.AdriftLab.org

#flygskam #SciComm #jetsam #RecycledMaterials #FurnitureDesign #MarineScience

Today we celebrate NINE YEARS with this gorgeous girl, Vienna Sausage (she’s one of our #AdriftLab mascots!) 🎂 🐶 #GotchaDay #DachshundsOfMastodon #dachshund @SeabirdSentinel

This week #AdriftLab was joined by Tanya, a #TradtionalOwner from Kepa Kurl/Esperance. We traveled to northern Australia (☀️Tanya’s home Country, yay!) and this morning, we flew to a remote #island to undertake a damage assessment after #CycloneIlsa. Sad to say, there was significant mortality of the breeding #seabirds with very few individuals of an #endemic species left alive 🐦🏝🌀 @SeabirdSentinel #EsperanceTjaltjraak #IndigenousRangers #CaringForCountry #ProtectWhatYouLove

Did we catch your attention with this adorable petrel chick? Oh good, now that we’ve got you…

🚨EXCITING NEW PAPER ALERT 🚨

#AdriftLab announce yet more ground-breaking #research alongside >100 international scientists. Published in #NatureCommunications, we compiled 3 huge datasets: #plastic ingested by 77 #seabirds, >1.6 million #tracking locations & plastic abundance in the #oceans. We used these data to answer the question: which species forage in areas of the ocean where large amounts of plastic have accumulated?

So, why does this matter? The results demonstrate that plastics exposure varies by species, location & season with threatened species being particularly vulnerable. Thus, large-scale collaborative teamwork is essential to identifying priorities, particularly important as the pace/scale of environmental change (including #PlasticPollution) is rapidly increasing & funding for mitigation isnt keeping pace. Thus, a detailed knowledge of when/where marine animals are most at risk of encountering plastics could not be more timely.

Paper free to download here ➡️ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38900-z
@SeabirdSentinel @SeabirdResearch

The #AdriftLab team are THRILLED to announce one of our brilliant students, Megan received incredible feedback from her PhD thesis examiners: essentially…zero revisions on >200 pages of writing. This is rare and speaks to Megan’s remarkable skill, dedication, and willingness to collaborate.

Message from Jenn: I’ve been so lucky to be primary supervisor for both Megan’s Honours and PhD. I distinctly remember the first day she walked into my office, and so many laughs, cries, and wonderful stories ever since. I think I speak for everyone when I say Megan is one of the kindest, most hardworking and compassionate researchers and we all are very fortunate to have worked with her. It’s been an absolute l honour and career highlight.
HUGE CONGRATULATIONS DR MEGAN GRANT! 🥳

#ThesisSubmission #TeamWork #LordHoweIsland #seabirds #shearwaters #PlasticPollution #GoodScienceGoodPeople

Proud supervisors: @SeabirdSentinel, @TheLabAndField & Suzie Reichman (Uni MEL)

Another day bashing through extremely dense Melaleuca in search of #malleefowl with #EsperanceTjaltjraak #IndigenousRangers. After getting whipped in the face by branches for 5 hrs, Im not able to include any quotes from the team because they all included curse words 🤬 (and a lot of grunting!). Good thing no one needed to record the “sounds of the bush” 🤣🤣🤣 And no, we didn’t see any birds 🙄 Thankfully, these hard-earned data are part of a new MSc #student #research project in collaboration with #RMIT University - stay tuned for exciting updates!
#CaringForCountry #ProtectWhatYouLove #ThreatenedSpecies #TeamWork #collaboration #AdriftLab #drones #SateliteImagery @AdriftLab

Another #AdriftLab #seabird paper has been featured in #AudubonMagazine (this important #research from #Australia will now reach an even broader audience in the USA) 🥳 - congrats to Hayley (our student) and team 👏

“a word can only do so much. Ultimately, reducing the world’s reliance on #plastic is the preventive treatment for #plasticosis”

#LordHoweIsland #PlasticPollution #SublethalEffects #PlasticIngestion @SeabirdSentinel @TheLabAndField READ THE ARTICLE HERE ➡️https://www.audubon.org/news/plastic-pollution-so-pervasive-its-causing-new-disease-seabirds

Huge day collecting tissue samples for a traditional #bushfoods project on #microplastics in #fish: a #collaboration between #AdriftLab, DPIRD & #EsperanceTjaljtraak #IndigenousRangers. Our dedicated team started at 6am and volunteered for another early start tomorrow! 🐟♻️💙 #BlackBream #mullet #TraditionalFoods #TeamWork #IndigenousInSTEM @SeabirdSentinel

BIG CONGRATS to #AdriftLab MSc candidate Meg who completed her final seminar on #microplastics in #ports yesterday 🥳. Over the past 9 months, she did an amazing job trialing methods to find one that actually works for #sediments (this was a huge achievement in its own right and the lessons learned will greatly benefit the broader #plastics community) 👏

#FTIR #TeamWork #AnthrofishLab #AIIPOP #EsperanceTjaltjraak #ThesisSubmission

Brilliant final seminar by our phenomenal #AdriftLab student, Gabbi and her superb team of supervisors 🥳👏

Gabbi looked at how we can more accurately & efficiently define #plastic #colour. How the #plastics community currently reports colour is hugely problematic (very ad hoc). Stay tuned for our free, user-friendly tool to streamline your #PlasticPollution workflow.

#CellProfiler #TeamWork #ThesisSubmission #MethodDevelopment #StandardiseReporting #PlasticIngestion #Seabirds #BeachPlastic @SeabirdSentinel @TheLabAndField @Jobium

So thrilled for THREE #AdriftLab students who submitted their #plastics and #bushfire focused thesis last week - congratulations to Gabbi, Meg and Finn! 🎉 Honoured, proud, & grateful to have been part of your journey 🙏 @TheLabAndField @SeabirdSentinel @Jobium
#collaboration #TeamWork #ThesisSubmission https://adriftlab.org/news/its-a-%E2%80%9Ctwo-thesis-submitted%E2%80%9D-kind-of-day/

Today our beautiful, broken #AdriftLab team removed >400 #plastics from one baby #seabird and >50g from another. It’s been rough (!), proud of how we’ve rallied around one another 💔🐦♻️

#PlasticIsNotADistraction #Ecogrief #LordHoweIsland #PollutionIsADesignChoice #PlasticPollution #shearwaters #BiodiversityCrisis #SentinelSpecies #Plasticingestion
@SeabirdSentinel @TheLabAndField

#AdriftLab at their absolute best: pretending to be #shearwaters during a team photo. @TheLabAndField is a road kill bird, @SeabirdSentinel is regurgitating, the rest is anyones guess 🤣🤣

Massive thanks to photographer extraordinaire Justin for capturing this image for us and being an all-round legend 🙏💙📸

#DreamTeam #GoodScienceGoodPeople #LordHoweIsland #seabirds #PlasticPollution #FieldWork

TWO tile spacers in the stomach of the same baby #seabird 🐦🥺
#PlasticPollution #shearwater #LordHoweIsland #AdriftLab

Today #AdriftLab found a #shearwater entangled in recreational fishing gear (line & hook visible in the top left corner). The line caused serious injury to the wing, leg and foot. We’re sad to say, the bird is no longer alive. Please fish much more carefully and responsibly, what you leave behind causes great suffering and ends the lives of others who are innocent and don’t have a voice
#FishingInteraction #entanglement #SentinelSpecies #seabird #LordHoweIsland @SeabirdSentinel @TheLabAndField

Best hairdo award goes to…this little dude! Tonight he made his first flight into the big blue, never having actually seen the ocean before! His pink toes won’t touch dry land again for FIVE YEARS, and in that time, he’ll probably cover close to 50,000 km! Safe travels, gorgeous one, the #AdriftLab team are already talking about the day we’ll see you again 🌊🪶💗
#Shearwaters #SeabirdSaturday #seabird #LordHoweIsland #Adorable #FieldWork #conservation #PlasticPollution #PlasticIngestion @TheLabAndField @SeabirdSentinel

✨New #AdriftLab paper✨ “Pumice ingestion in #seabirds: interannual variation, and relationships with chick growth and plastic ingestion” 🐦🌋 #OpenAccess (free to download) HERE ➡️ https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00227-023-04203-6

We analysed the amount of ingested #pumice (on LEFT in photo) from 739 Flesh-footed & 173 Wedge-tailed #Shearwaters from #LordHoweIsland during 2011-2022 #LongTermMonitoring

Pumice mass did not vary over time, except for one higher year for each species (2016 for FFSH & 2014 for WTSH), and there was no effect of pumice mass on chick body size at fledgling.

Our results are consistent with the coexistence over geological time of seabirds and floating pumice & provides further evidence that ingested pumice does not cause #Plasticosis or other harm like #IngestedPlastic does
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304389422019112

Big thanks to Gabbi for providing the photo used in Figure 1 and to @nhm_london and Esperance Tjaltjraak Native Title Aboriginal Corporation for their endless support!! 🙏 @SeabirdSentinel @TheLabAndField

This week our ETNTAC #IndigenousRangers are supporting the 2023 #BushBlitz event in #Esperance. I was fortunate to spend the day with this epic human ⬇️ totally in awe of his #dreamtime stories & the ID skills of the trapdoor #spider expert #AdriftLab #NewSpecies #CaringForCountry @adriftlab

#AdriftLab’s new paper describing the disease #Plasticosis - fibrosis as a result of exposure to #IngestedPlastics - is ranked 🥇NUMBER ONE🥇 by #Altmetric for the Journal of Hazardous Materials 🥳 #seabirds #microplastics #SublethalEffects #wildlife #OceanHealth #sentinel @SeabirdSentinel @TheLabAndField