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Research Article

Prey-size plastics are invading larval fish nurseries

View ORCID ProfileJamison M. Gove, View ORCID ProfileJonathan L. Whitney, View ORCID ProfileMargaret A. McManus, View ORCID ProfileJoey Lecky, Felipe C. Carvalho, Jennifer M. Lynch, Jiwei Li, Philipp Neubauer, View ORCID ProfileKatharine A. Smith, Jana E. Phipps, Donald R. Kobayashi, Karla B. Balagso, Emily A. Contreras, Mark E. Manuel, Mark A. Merrifield, Jeffrey J. Polovina, View ORCID ProfileGregory P. Asner, Jeffrey A. Maynard, and View ORCID ProfileGareth J. Williams
PNAS November 26, 2019 116 (48) 24143-24149; first published November 11, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1907496116
Jamison M. Gove
aPacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Honolulu, HI 96818;
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  • ORCID record for Jamison M. Gove
  • For correspondence: jamison.gove@noaa.gov
Jonathan L. Whitney
aPacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Honolulu, HI 96818;bJoint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822;
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  • ORCID record for Jonathan L. Whitney
Margaret A. McManus
cDepartment of Oceanography, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822;
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  • ORCID record for Margaret A. McManus
Joey Lecky
aPacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Honolulu, HI 96818;dLynker Technologies, Leesburg, VA 20175;
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  • ORCID record for Joey Lecky
Felipe C. Carvalho
aPacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Honolulu, HI 96818;
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Jennifer M. Lynch
eChemical Sciences Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Waimanalo, HI 96795;fCenter for Marine Debris Research, Hawai‘i Pacific University, Waimanalo, HI 96795;
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Jiwei Li
gCenter for Global Discovery and Conservation Science, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281;
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Philipp Neubauer
hDragonfly Data Science, Te Aro, Wellington 6011, New Zealand;
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Katharine A. Smith
bJoint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822;cDepartment of Oceanography, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822;
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  • ORCID record for Katharine A. Smith
Jana E. Phipps
aPacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Honolulu, HI 96818;bJoint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822;
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Donald R. Kobayashi
aPacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Honolulu, HI 96818;
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Karla B. Balagso
aPacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Honolulu, HI 96818;
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Emily A. Contreras
aPacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Honolulu, HI 96818;bJoint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI 96822;
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Mark E. Manuel
iMarine Debris Program, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Honolulu, HI 96818;jFreestone Environmental Services, Richland, WA 99352;
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Mark A. Merrifield
kCenter for Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA 92037;
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Jeffrey J. Polovina
aPacific Islands Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Honolulu, HI 96818;
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Gregory P. Asner
gCenter for Global Discovery and Conservation Science, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281;
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  • ORCID record for Gregory P. Asner
Jeffrey A. Maynard
lSymbioSeas, Carolina Beach, NC 28428;
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Gareth J. Williams
mSchool of Ocean Sciences, Bangor University, Menai Bridge, Anglesey LL59 5AB, United Kingdom
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  • ORCID record for Gareth J. Williams
  1. Edited by James A. Estes, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, and approved October 2, 2019 (received for review April 30, 2019)

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Significance

Many of the world’s marine fish spend the first days to weeks feeding and developing at the ocean surface. However, very little is known about the ocean processes that govern larval fish survivorship and hence adult fish populations that supply essential nutrients and protein to human societies. We demonstrate that surface slicks, meandering lines of convergence on the ocean surface, are important larval fish nurseries that disproportionately accumulate nonnutritious, toxin-laden prey-size plastics. Plastic pieces were found in numerous larval fish taxa at a time when nutrition is critical for survival. Surface slicks are a ubiquitous coastal ocean feature, suggesting that plastic accumulation in these larval fish nurseries could have far reaching ecological and socioeconomic impacts.

Abstract

Life for many of the world’s marine fish begins at the ocean surface. Ocean conditions dictate food availability and govern survivorship, yet little is known about the habitat preferences of larval fish during this highly vulnerable life-history stage. Here we show that surface slicks, a ubiquitous coastal ocean convergence feature, are important nurseries for larval fish from many ocean habitats at ecosystem scales. Slicks had higher densities of marine phytoplankton (1.7-fold), zooplankton (larval fish prey; 3.7-fold), and larval fish (8.1-fold) than nearby ambient waters across our study region in Hawai‘i. Slicks contained larger, more well-developed individuals with competent swimming abilities compared to ambient waters, suggesting a physiological benefit to increased prey resources. Slicks also disproportionately accumulated prey-size plastics, resulting in a 60-fold higher ratio of plastics to larval fish prey than nearby waters. Dissections of hundreds of larval fish found that 8.6% of individuals in slicks had ingested plastics, a 2.3-fold higher occurrence than larval fish from ambient waters. Plastics were found in 7 of 8 families dissected, including swordfish (Xiphiidae), a commercially targeted species, and flying fish (Exocoetidae), a principal prey item for tuna and seabirds. Scaling up across an ∼1,000 km2 coastal ecosystem in Hawai‘i revealed slicks occupied only 8.3% of ocean surface habitat but contained 42.3% of all neustonic larval fish and 91.8% of all floating plastics. The ingestion of plastics by larval fish could reduce survivorship, compounding threats to fisheries productivity posed by overfishing, climate change, and habitat loss.

  • larval fish
  • nursery habitat
  • surface slicks
  • microplastics

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: jamison.gove{at}noaa.gov.
  • ↵2J.M.G. and J.L.W. contributed equally to this work.

  • Author contributions: J.M.G. and J.L.W. conceived the study with assistance from M. A. McManus and J.J.P.; J.L.W. led data collection and processing with assistance from J.M.G. and G.P.A.; J.M.G. and G.J.W. developed and implemented the analyses with assistance from J.L.W., J. Lecky, F.C.C., and P.N.; J. Li, K.A.S., J.E.P., D.R.K., K.A.B., E.A.C., M.E.M., and M. A. Merrifield made substantive contributions to data acquisition and materials and methods development; and J.M.G. and G.J.W. wrote the paper with assistance from J.L.W. and J.A.M.

  • The authors declare no competing interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • Data deposition: All data and code used in this manuscript are in SI Appendix and available from NOAA’s Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center GitHub site (https://github.com/PIFSCstockassessments/fishnurseries).

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1907496116/-/DCSupplemental.

  • Copyright © 2019 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.

This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).

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Prey-size plastics are invading larval fish nurseries
Jamison M. Gove, Jonathan L. Whitney, Margaret A. McManus, Joey Lecky, Felipe C. Carvalho, Jennifer M. Lynch, Jiwei Li, Philipp Neubauer, Katharine A. Smith, Jana E. Phipps, Donald R. Kobayashi, Karla B. Balagso, Emily A. Contreras, Mark E. Manuel, Mark A. Merrifield, Jeffrey J. Polovina, Gregory P. Asner, Jeffrey A. Maynard, Gareth J. Williams
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Nov 2019, 116 (48) 24143-24149; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1907496116

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Prey-size plastics are invading larval fish nurseries
Jamison M. Gove, Jonathan L. Whitney, Margaret A. McManus, Joey Lecky, Felipe C. Carvalho, Jennifer M. Lynch, Jiwei Li, Philipp Neubauer, Katharine A. Smith, Jana E. Phipps, Donald R. Kobayashi, Karla B. Balagso, Emily A. Contreras, Mark E. Manuel, Mark A. Merrifield, Jeffrey J. Polovina, Gregory P. Asner, Jeffrey A. Maynard, Gareth J. Williams
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Nov 2019, 116 (48) 24143-24149; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1907496116
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