Jennifer Lavers, IMAS
Monday Nov 14th, 12 noon,
IMAS Seminar Room, Sandy Bay

Abstract
Seabirds are convenient indicators of contamination of the marine environment because feathers can be sampled non-destructively, and a great deal is known about their ecology. Flesh-footed Shearwaters (Puffinus carneipes) are of conservation concern in Australia and New Zealand, partly because ingestion of marine debris may be reducing breeding success at their largest colony. Because marine plastics accumulate contaminants in the ocean environment, an assessment of metal and metalloid contaminants was initiated. We sampled feathers from Kauwahaia (n = 18) and Lady Alice Island, New Zealand (n = 30), Lord Howe Island (n = 24) and Western Australia (n = 33) during the 2008 austral summer, making this the most complete assessment of metal and metalloid contamination of any shearwater. We found colony differences in all elements except lead and thallium. Samples from Western Australia had higher silver, aluminium, cadmium, and copper concentrations, while shearwaters from Lord

Biography
Jennifer Lavers is an IMAS Honorary Fellow, working on the impacts of plastic ingestion on Australian seabirds. She has a Bachelor of Science (Hons, 2003) in Biology from the University of Alberta and a PhD from Memorial University (2007) in Arctic seabird ecology. From 2007 to 2010 she was a UTas QMS Postdoc working on fisheries bycatch (seabirds & turtles) and she was recently named as the Young Tall Poppy (Tasmania) Scientist of the Year.