A seabird's family tree predicts its plastic risk better than its diet

Which seabirds end up with plastic in their stomachs? Intuition says it depends on what they eat — but a global analysis led by the University of Queensland with London's Natural History Museum, covering 82,406 birds across 230 species and published in Biology Letters, found the strongest predictor is ancestry: closely related species accumulate plastic at similar rates, whatever their diet or feeding style. That gives conservationists a rapid first screen — flag the relatives of known plastic-accumulators, including 143 species never yet sampled, and check them first.

SDG 14 · Life below water