Better Data, Better Outcomes: Unified Macroplastic Ingestion Reporting Methods to Inform Risk Assessment

Addressing the impacts of plastic pollution, particularly plastic ingestion, on wildlife and ecosystems has become a priority for decision-makers developing management strategies. As nations design national action plans, the need for science-based targets to guide management objectives is increasingly urgent. Despite decades of evidence showing plastic ingestion in more than 1,500 species, our understanding of how ingestion affects organisms, populations, and ecosystems remains limited. Ecological risk assessments, which estimate the likelihood that a stressor will cause adverse effects at various biological levels, offer a pathway for identifying environmental thresholds. However, for macroplastic ingestion─an exposure pathway that cannot be ethically or feasibly studied in the laboratory─harmonized, large-scale environmental datasets are essential. Existing frameworks for reporting plastic ingestion are well suited for characterizing exposure in marine species, yet researchers often do not document observed harm in ways that support risk assessments. Here, we present a framework for collecting and reporting data on plastic ingestion in wildlife that better captures effects relevant to macroplastic risk assessment. Our framework builds on established ingestion protocols and introduces new approaches for measuring and reporting acute wildlife mortality and injuries attributable to plastic ingestion. Implementing this framework will continue to support long-term monitoring efforts, while improving our understanding of lethal and sublethal ingestion thresholds.