Description: Small herbivores are abundant on large marine macrophytes, but their impact on their hosts is poorly understood relativeuto large grazers such as urchins and fish. To limit the risks of predation, many marine mesograzers live within nests or burrows,upotentially causing more damage to plants than predicted from consumption alone. To test whether the growth ofularge primary producers can be affected by modification of plant structures by small herbivores, we quantified the effect ofuthe nest-building amphipod Pseudopleonexes lessoniae on blades of the giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera in New Zealand.uAmphipods create their nests by rolling the blade margin in close proximity to the meristem. Blades with nests were 40%ushorter than blades lacking nests and reduced in area by 55%. We examined the composition of amphipods inhabiting eachunest to assess the temporal persistence of grazer aggregations. Nests were occupied by a single female or male–female pairs, and their newly hatched offspring. Analysis of offspring size distributions suggested that offspring dispersed from the maternal nest and did not remain to breed themselves. By concentrating physical damage and feeding on valuable tissues, these results indicate that even low numbers of small herbivores can cause localized impacts on the morphology and size of fast-growing algal blades. Predicting the consequences of this damage on larger scales will require understanding the spatial and temporal distribution of amphipod nests on giant kelp.

Description: Plastic litter is gaining attention in environmental science, public perception, and, finally, in politics. Macro- and microplastic pollution of rivers, oceans, and beaches are regularly reported. However, to our knowledge nobody studied the temporal dynamics of plastic pollution at beaches. This study is a re-investigation of a former work done in 2012 on the occurrence, distribution and composition of microplastic at Slovenian beaches. Similar methods in field sampling and particle isolation were applied. The study was extended by including additional beaches, addressing seasonal aspects (winter and summer) and introducing quality assurance/quality control checks. Furthermore, the chemical composition of isolated plastic items was verified by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. Only about 10 % of the putative microplastic items were decisively recognised as synthetic material. Secondary microplastics were present as fragments, fibers, films, and foams. Primary microplastics were absent at all. The microplastic concentrations of the present study were distinctly lower than in the former study. The low pollution of Slovenian beaches could be the result of regular beach clean-ups of touristic beaches, or an improved environmental consciousness of citizens and tourists. This study emphasize the importance of continuous microplastic monitoring to understand the annual microplastic contamination and its’ seasonal and inter-annual dynamics.

Description: Plastic pollution of the oceans is a global problem, which currently receives increasing attention by policy makers, public authorities, media and the general public. Although this field of has recently seen a marked increase in research efforts, there is a level of uncertainty, misinformation and worry in the general public indicating that scientific knowledge is currently insufficiently channelled back to society. To bridge this gap, we devised an online portal, LITTERBASE (litterbase.org), which provides continuously updated information on the global distribution and composition of litter pollution and its impacts on biota to stakeholders based on data from peer-reviewed publications. To date, data from 1,725 studies (status April 2018) have been extracted, fed manually into a database and translated into understandable global maps and infographs to open scientific knowledge to the public. Bibliometric data of all publications were entered, as were metadata pertaining to litter type (e.g. plastic, glass, metal, fishing gear), size (i.e. nano, micro, macro), litter quantity unit (e.g. items km-2, items km-1, items m3), aquatic system (e.g. marine, freshwater, estuary), biome (e.g. beach, sea surface, water column, benthic) and total litter quantity. Litter quantities were standardised to the most frequently used units to achieve comparability. Data on biological interactions with litter were also extracted: location of field records, number of species affected, percentage of individuals affected, type of interaction incurred (e.g. entanglement, ingestion, coverage, rafting), effects on biota (e.g. injury, mortality, growth, behaviour), litter type, size, aquatic system and biome. Accordingly, 1,472 taxa (status April 2018) have been found affected by marine litter. Here, we will discuss the use of LITTERBASE with a focus on microplastic distribution, particularly in terms of unveiling our blind spots.