ArticleNature ecology & evolution2023
Current levels of microplastic pollution impact wild seabird gut microbiomes.
Article in Nature ecology & evolution, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 142 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Age-related changes in the gut microbiota of a long-lived seabird suggest divergence from mammalian models.Royal Society open science · 2026Article
- Beyond numbers: Prioritizing population health in the next era of wildlife conservation.Innovation (Cambridge (Mass.)) · 2026Review
- Untapped enzymatic potential: dehalogenase- and peroxidase-driven PVC degradation by gene carriers in Tibetan plateau pikas.Microbiome · 2026Article
- Gut-Microbial Responses to Acute Polyester Microplastic Exposure in Zebrafish: Dysbiosis, Opportunistic Bacteria, and Functional Impact.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Intestinal microplastic debris, flora dysbiosis, and insidious combined hazards across diverse aquatic and terrestrial organisms.Journal of advanced research · 2026Review
- Timing Is Everything: The Effect of Exposure to Pollution on Wildlife Gut Microbiota Is Contingent on Season.Molecular ecology · 2026Article
- Microbes first into the life rafts: preserving microbiomes to secure health in degrading ecosystems.Sustainable microbiology · 2026Article
- Gut Microbiome Variations in Herring Gulls (Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Review
- Migration-driven microbial adaptation and ecological spillover in birds.ISME communications · 2026Review
- Microbiome-inspired solutions to save human and planetary health.Frontiers in microbiology · 2026Review
- Impact of animal socioecology on gut microbial communities: Insights from wild meerkats in the Kalahari.The Journal of animal ecology · 2025Article
- The Effect of Larval Exposure to Plastic Pollution on the Gut Microbiota of the Major Malaria Vector Anopheles arabiensis Patton (Diptera: Culicidae).Environmental microbiology reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Seabirds in crisis: Plastic ingestion induces proteomic signatures of multiorgan failure and neurodegeneration.Science advances · 2025Article
- Microplastic research must consider microbes.Nature microbiology · 2025Article
- Differential gut microbiome composition in three-spined stickleback populations with contrasting levels of mercury accumulation.Frontiers in microbiology · 2025Article
- First report of microplastics in the gastrointestinal tracts of North American insectivorous bats.PeerJ · 2025Article
- InvasiveInternational journal for parasitology. Parasites and wildlife · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Microplastics contaminate environments worldwide and are ingested by numerous species, whose health is affected in multiple ways. A key dimension of health that may be affected is the gut microbiome, but these effects are relatively unexplored. Here, we investigated if microplastics are associated with changes in proventricular and cloacal microbiomes in two seabird species that chronically ingest microplastics: northern fulmars and Cory's shearwaters. The amount of microplastics in the gut was significantly correlated with gut microbial diversity and composition: microplastics were associated with decreases in commensal microbiota and increases in (zoonotic) pathogens and antibiotic-resistant and plastic-degrading microbes. These results illustrate that environmentally relevant microplastic concentrations and mixtures are associated with changes in gut microbiomes in wild seabirds.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.