This is the first time that tracking data for so many seabird species has been combined and overlaid onto global maps of plastic distribution in the oceans.

The results show that plastic pollution threatens marine life on a scale that transcends national boundaries: a quarter of all plastic exposure risk occurs in the high seas. This is largely linked to gyres — large systems of rotating ocean currents — where vast accumulations of plastics form, fed by waste entering the sea from boats, and from many different countries.

Seabirds often mistake small plastic fragments for food, or ingest plastic that has already been eaten by their prey. This can lead to injury, poisoning and starvation, and petrels are particularly vulnerable because they can’t easily regurgitate the plastic. In the breeding season they often inadvertently feed plastic to their chicks.

Plastics can also contain toxic chemicals that can be harmful to seabirds.

Petrels are an understudied but vulnerable group of marine species, which play a key role in oceanic food webs. The breadth of their distribution across the whole ocean makes them important ‘sentinel species’ when assessing the risks of plastic pollution in the marine environment.

“Ocean currents cause big swirling collections of plastic rubbish to accumulate far from land, way out of sight and beyond the jurisdiction of any one country. We found that many species of petrel spend considerable amounts of time feeding around these mid-ocean gyres, which puts them at high risk of ingesting plastic debris,” said Lizzie Pearmain, a PhD student at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology and the British Antarctic Survey, and joint corresponding author of the study.

She added: “When petrels eat plastic, it can get stuck in their stomachs and be fed to their chicks. This leaves less space for food, and can cause internal injuries or release toxins.”

Petrels and other species are already threatened with extinction due to climate change, bycatch, competition with fisheries, and invasive species such as mice and rats on their breeding colonies. The researchers say exposure to plastics may reduce the birds’ resilience to these other threats.

The north-east Pacific, South Atlantic, and the south-west Indian oceans have mid-ocean gyres full of plastic waste, where many species of threatened seabird forage.

“Even species with low exposure risk have been found to eat plastic. This shows that plastic levels in the ocean are a problem for seabirds worldwide, even outside of these high exposure areas,” said Dr Bethany Clark, Seabird Science Officer at BirdLife International and joint corresponding author of the study.

She added: “Many petrel species risk exposure to plastic in the waters of several countries and the high seas during their migrations. Due to ocean currents, this plastic debris often ends up far away from its original source. This highlights the need for international cooperation to tackle plastic pollution in the world’s oceans.”

The study also found that the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea together account for over half of petrels’ global plastic exposure risk. However, only four species of petrel forage in these enclosed, busy areas.

The study was led by a partnership between the University of Cambridge, BirdLife International and the British Antarctic Survey, in collaboration with Fauna & Flora International, the 5 Gyres Institute, and over 200 seabird researchers in 27 countries.

It is published today in the journal Nature Communications.

To get their results, the researchers overlaid global location data, taken from tracking devices attached to the birds, onto pre-existing maps of marine plastic distribution. This allowed them to identify the areas on the birds’ migration and foraging journeys where they are most likely to encounter plastics.

Species were given an ‘exposure risk score’ to indicate their risk of encountering plastic during their time at sea. A number of already threatened species scored highly, including the Critically Endangered Balearic Shearwater, which breeds in the Mediterranean, and Newell’s Shearwater, endemic to Hawaii.

Another Endangered species, the Hawaiian Petrel also scored high for plastic exposure risk, as did three species classified by the IUCN as Vulnerable: the Yelkouan Shearwater, which breeds in the Mediterranean; Cook’s Petrel,which breeds in New Zealand, and the Spectacled Petrel, which only breeds on an extinct volcano called Inaccessible Island, part of the Tristan da Cunha archipelago, a UK Overseas Territory.

“While the population-level effects of plastic exposure are not yet known for most species, many petrels and other marine species are already in a precarious situation. Continued exposure to potentially dangerous plastics adds to the pressures,” said Professor Andrea Manica at the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology, a co-author of the study.

He added: “This study is a big leap forward in understanding the situation, and our results will feed into conservation work to try and address the threats to birds at sea.”

This research was funded by the Cambridge Conservation Initiative’s Collaborative Fund for Conservation, sponsored by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, and the Natural Environment Research Council.

Tracking data from 2002 to 2018, the peer-reviewed findings, published today in Child and Adolescent Obesity, demonstrate a noticeable decrease in those who overestimate their weight too.

The team of international experts, who carried out the research, warn these shifting trends in body weight perception could reduce the effectiveness of public health interventions aimed at weight reduction in young people.

“During this impressionable age, body weight perception may influence a young person’s lifestyle choices, such as the amount and types of food they eat and their exercise habits,” says lead author Doctor Anouk Geraets, from the Department of Social Sciences, at the University of Luxembourg.

“So it’s concerning that we’re seeing a trend where fewer adolescents perceive themselves as being overweight — as this could undermine ongoing efforts to tackle increasing levels of obesity in this age group. Young people who underestimate their weight and therefore do not consider themselves to be overweight may not feel they need to lose excess weight and, as a result, they may make unhealthy lifestyle choices.”

A person’s perception of their body weight may not accurately reflect their actual weight. A discrepancy in body weight perception (BWP) may either be an underestimation (where actual weight is higher than perceived weight) or an overestimation (where actual weight is lower than perceived weight).

In the present study, the researchers examined survey data from 746,121 11-, 13- and 15-year-olds from 41 countries collected at four-yearly intervals between 2002 and 2018 in the International Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC), a WHO collaborative study.

The team modeled trends in BWP among adolescents across different countries over time, making adjustments for age, gender, and family socioeconomic status. They found:

• Underestimation of weight status increased, and overestimation of weight status decreased over time among both sexes, with stronger trends for girls.
• Correct weight perception increased over time among girls, while it decreased among boys.
• Changes in correct weight perception, underestimation and overestimation of weight status differed across different countries — but these changes could not be explained by an increase in country-level overweight/obesity prevalence.

The authors speculated that the observed differences between girls and boys in BWP may support the idea there are sex differences in body ideals — and that these body ideals have changed over time. Notably, the increased underestimation and decreased overestimation of weight status over time for girls may be explained by the emergence of an athletic and strong body, as a new contemporary body ideal for both sexes.

“This study has clinical and public health implications. The increase in correct weight perception and the decrease in overestimation may have a positive effect on unnecessary and unhealthy weight loss behaviors among adolescents, while the increase in underestimation might indicate the need for interventions to strengthen correct weight perception,” says lead author Doctor Anouk Geraets.

“More research is now needed to understand the factors underlying these time trends and to develop effective public health interventions.”

While the large number of participating countries is a strength of the present study — but as these only included countries in Europe, the USA and Canada, the results can’t be generalized to other regions. In addition, although steps were taken to adjust the models for certain potential confounding factors, several other factors — such as body image, dieting, changing eating patterns, or migration — may also have played a role in the observed trends over time.

Only 36% of UK employers have invested in AI-enabled technologies like industrial robots, chat bots, smart assistants and cloud computing over the past five years, according to a nationally representative survey from the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (Digit). The survey was carried out between November 2021 and June 2022, with a second wave now underway.

Academics at the University of Leeds, with colleagues at the Universities of Sussex and Cambridge, led the research, finding that just 10% of employers who hadn’t already invested in AI-enabled technologies were planning to invest in the next two years.

The new data also points to a growing skills problem. Less than 10% of employers anticipated a need to make an investment in digital skills training in the coming years, despite 75% finding it difficult to recruit people with the right skills. Almost 60% of employers reported that none of their employees had received formal digital skills training in the past year.

Lead researcher Professor Mark Stuart, Pro Dean for Research and Innovation at Leeds University Business School, said: “A mix of hope, speculation, and hype is fuelling a runaway narrative that the adoption of new AI-enabled digital technologies will rapidly transform the UK’s labour market, boosting productivity and growth. These hopes are often accompanied by fears about the consequences for jobs and even of existential risk.

“However, our findings suggest there is a need to focus on a different policy challenge. The workplace AI revolution is not happening quite yet. Policymakers will need to address both low employer investment in digital technologies and low investment in digital skills, if the UK economy is to realise the potential benefits of digital transformation.”

Stijn Broecke, Senior Economist at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), said: “At a time when AI is shifting digitalisation into a higher gear, it is important to move beyond the hype and have a debate that is driven by evidence rather than fear and anecdote. This new report by the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (Digit) does exactly this and provides a nuanced picture of the impact of digital technologies on the workplace, highlighting both the risks and the opportunities.”

The main reasons for investing were improving efficiency, productivity and product and service quality, according to the survey. On the other hand, the key reasons for non-investment were AI being irrelevant to the business activity, wider business risks and the nature of skills demanded.

There was little evidence in this survey to suggest that investing in AI-enabled technology leads to job losses. In fact, digital adopters were more likely to have increased their employment in the five-year period before the survey.

As policymakers race to keep up with new developments in technology, the researchers are now urging politicians to focus on the facts of AI in the workplace.

The Employers’ Digital Practices at Work Survey is a key output of the Digital Futures at Work Research Centre, which is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and co-led by the Universities of Sussex and Leeds Business Schools. The First Findings report will be available on the Digit website on Tuesday 4 July.