Description: This dataset comprises data obtained during a 6 week-long exposure experiment of mussels of the family Mytilidae to two types of microplastics, namely polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and polyvinylchloride (PVC) particles and two types of natural inorganic microparticles, namely diatoms and red clay. This data was obtained from May to September 2019 in five different bioregions, which are Tasmania, Chile, Japan, Cabo Verde and Israel. We recorded body condition index, byssus thread production in 24 hours, clearance rate of the food algae and respiration rate at the end of six weeks of exposure to the four different microparticles (with an exception of the groups exposed to PVC and red clay in Tasmania, which lasted 5 weeks). Mussels were exposed to three concentrations of each particle type, which were 1.5, 15 and 150 mg/l and one group to no particles at all as control.

Description: Seabirds face diverse threats on their breeding islands and while at sea. Human activities have been linked to the decline of seabird populations, yet over-wintering areas typically receive little or no protection. Adult survival rates, a crucial parameter for population persistence in long-lived species, tend to be spatially or temporally restricted for many seabird species, limiting our under-standing of factors driving population trends at some sites. We used bio-loggers to study the migration of Western Australian Flesh-footed Shearwaters Ardenna carneipes carneipes and esti-mated adult survival over five years. Western Australia is home to around 35% of the world’s breeding Flesh-footed Shearwaters, a population which was up-listed to Vulnerable in 2015. During the austral winter, shearwaters migrated across the central Indian Ocean to their non-breeding grounds off western Sri Lanka. Low site fidelity on breeding islands, mortality of adult birds at sea (e.g. fisheries bycatch), and low annual breeding frequency likely contributed to the low estimated annual adult survival (2011–2015: φ = 0.634-0.835).

Description: Highlights: • Mussel BCI was 14% lower after exposure to PVC particles in comparison to red clay. • Byssus production, respiration and survival did not differ between particle types. • Mussels suffered little from the five-week particle exposure up to 150 mg l−1. Abstract: Effects of microplastics on marine taxa have become a focal point in marine experimental biology. Almost all studies so far, however, assessed the influence of microplastics on animals only in relation to a zero-particle group. Documented microplastic impacts may thus be overestimated, since many marine species also experience natural suspended solids as a stressor. Here, we compared the effects of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and red clay (mean for both particles: ~12–14 μm) on the Mediterranean mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis across three particle concentrations (1.5, 15, 150 mg l−1). Exposure to PVC for 35 days lowered mussel body condition index by 14% in relation to clay, but no difference in byssus production, respiration and survival rates emerged between the two particle types. This suggests that the effects of synthetic particles on filter feeders may emulate those of natural suspended solids, and highlights the importance of including natural particles in microplastic exposure studies.

Description: Highlights: • First study to compare microplastic effects over a wide biogeographical range • Comparison between natural inorganic microparticles and plastic microparticles • Significant effects on byssus production, respiration and clearance rates, but small effect sizes • No ecologically relevant difference between impact of plastic and natural inorganic microparticles on Mytilidae Abstract: Microplastics are ubiquitous in the marine environment and studies on their effects on benthic filter feeders at least partly revealed a negative influence. However, it is still unclear whether the effects of microplastics differ from those of natural suspended microparticles, which constitute a common stressor in many coastal environments. We present a series of experiments that compared the effects of six-week exposures of marine mussels to two types of natural particles (red clay and diatom shells) to two types of plastic particles (Polymethyl Methacrylate and Polyvinyl Chloride). Mussels of the family Mytilidae from temperate regions (Japan, Chile, Tasmania) through subtropical (Israel) to tropical environments (Cabo Verde) were exposed to concentrations of 1.5 mg/L, 15 mg/L and 150 mg/L of the respective microparticles. At the end of this period, we found significant effects of suspended particles on respiration rate, byssus production and condition index of the animals. There was no significant effect on clearance rate and survival. Surprisingly, we observed only small differences between the effects of the different types of particles, which suggests that the mussels were generally equally robust towards exposure to variable concentrations of suspended solids regardless of whether they were natural or plastic. We conclude, that microplastics and suspended solids elicit similar effects on the tested response variables, and that both types of microparticles mainly cause acute responses rather than more persistent carry-over effects.