Date of Award

Summer 2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Biology

Committee Chairperson

Megan Fork, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Jennifer Uehling, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Jennifer Chandler, Ph.D.

Abstract

Plastics have become a ubiquitous pollutant due to their increasing production worldwide. Current recycling infrastructure is inadequate, causing most plastics to end up in landfills or the environment, where they can take decades to break down and release additional pollutants in the process. To combat plastic pollution, nearly thirty municipalities in southeastern Pennsylvania have enacted single-use plastic (SUP) bans. We sampled anthropogenic litter from nine stream sites within municipalities with three different SUP ban statuses for seven sampling rounds roughly one month apart. We found that riparian areas within active SUP bans had more SUPs and other plastic items than those with no SUP bans. These results suggest that municipal-scale SUP bans alone are not effective to reduce plastic pollution in the short-term, and additional mitigation strategies should be explored.

Additionally, microplastics (MPs) are produced via the degradation of larger plastics. MPs present threats to organisms, including familiar passerine species, but how species differ in their MP exposure is not yet understood. I collected fecal samples from five species of varying diets and foraging strategies and quantified MPs present by count and density. I found feces of birds with ground foraging strategies contained more MPs than birds with mixed foraging strategies, suggesting MP exposure is related to how birds forage. The proportions of MP shapes in feces differed between diet types, suggesting that birds’ prey also influence their exposure to MPs. Future studies should account for effects traits like diet and foraging strategy on MP exposure for target species.

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