Light pollution affects nesting behavior of loggerhead turtles and predation risk of nests and hatchlings

Silva, Elton; Marco, Adolfo; Graça, Jesemine da; Espinosa‐Pérez, Hector; Abella, Elena; Patiño-Martínez, Juan; Martins, Samir; Almeida, Corrine

doi:10.1016/j.jphotobiol.2017.06.006

Cited by 65 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…), increasing predation risk, and disrupting land‐to‐sea movement behavior (Silva et al. ), but to our knowledge, no studies have detected similar relationships between light pollution and freshwater turtles.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Effects of urbanization on the population structure of freshwater turtles across the United States

Bowne

Cosentino

Anderson

et al. 2018

Conservation Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Landscape-scale alterations that accompany urbanization may negatively affect the population structure of wildlife species such as freshwater turtles. Changes to nesting sites and higher mortality rates due to vehicular collisions and increased predator populations may particularly affect immature turtles and mature female turtles. We hypothesized that the proportions of adult female and immature turtles in a population will negatively correlate with landscape urbanization. As a collaborative effort of the Ecological Research as Education Network (EREN), we sampled freshwater turtle populations in 11 states across the central and eastern United States. Contrary to expectations, we found a significant positive relationship between proportions of mature female painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) and urbanization. We did not detect a relationship between urbanization and proportions of immature turtles. Urbanization may alter the thermal environment of nesting sites such that more females are produced as urbanization increases. Our approach of creating a collaborative network of scientists and students at undergraduate institutions proved valuable in terms of testing our hypothesis over a large spatial scale while also allowing students to gain hands-on experience in conservation science.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Effects of urbanization on the population structure of freshwater turtles across the United States

Bowne

Cosentino

Anderson

et al. 2018

Conservation Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Public space lighting (PSL), if adequately designed, promotes the feeling of safety (FoS), increases comfort, defines spaces, and forms neighborhood identities [1]. However, if excessive or misdirected, PSL leads to energy waste, increases greenhouse gas emissions [2,3], and poses non-negligible threats to human health [4][5][6][7] and natural ecosystems [8][9][10]. The relation between urban residents and their physical environment is a major field of study in environmental psychology [11,12].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How Much Lighting is Required to Feel Safe When Walking Through the Streets at Night?

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Public space lighting (PSL) is indispensable after the natural dark. However, little is known about how much PSL people actually need to feel sufficiently safe in different real-world urban settings. The present study attempts to answer this question by employing a novel real-time interactive approach, according to which, observers use a specially-designed mobile phone application to assess and report the perceived attributes of street lighting and the feeling of safety (FoS) it generates. To validate the proposed approach, a systematic survey was conducted in three cities in Israel—Tel Aviv-Yafo and Haifa, which lie on the Mediterranean coast, and Be’er Sheba, which lies inland. Additionally, instrumental PSL measurements were performed at the same locations. As the study reveals, the necessary level of illumination required by urban residents to feel safe differs by city and is significantly higher in Be’er Sheba, other factors held equal, in compare to Haifa and Tel Aviv-Yafo. This difference may be attributed to stronger daylight that the residents of the desert city of Be’er Sheba are accustomed to, and, therefore, may prefer stronger nighttime illumination. The difference could also be related to the relatively low socio-economic status and somewhat higher crime rates in the latter city. Findings also show a significant and positive association between FoS and instrumentally measured PSL levels, although this association exhibits diminishing returns. To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first to use an interactive location- and time-based mobile phone technology, which can potentially provide more accurate and reliable assessments, compared to traditional “pen and paper” survey techniques.

show abstract

“…Sea turtle nest site selection is highly variable, and a female turtle may abandon her nesting attempt at any time for reasons beyond obstructions, including human disturbance, artificial lighting, the presence of predators, and unfavorable sand conditions (Hailman & Elowson 1992, Garmestani et al 2000, Chen et al 2007, Kelly et al 2017, Silva et al 2017. Nests laid too close to the water are at increased risk of inundation and erosion, while nests closer to the dune risk increased predation of the eggs and emergent hatchlings (Fowler 1979, Mazaris et al 2009, O'Connor et al 2017, Ware & Fuentes 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leave No Trace ordinances for coastal species management: influences on sea turtle nesting success

Ware

Fuentes

2020

Endang. Species. Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Coastal environments provide critical ecosystem services but experience a number of threats including marine debris and abandoned beach equipment. To address this threat, municipalities have begun enacting policy measures such as Leave No Trace ordinances. The impact of these ordinances on coastal species management has not yet been established. To evaluate the effectiveness of Leave No Trace ordinances in coastal species management, sea turtle crawl distribution, nesting success, and the frequency of obstructed crawls pre-and post-ordinance at a loggerhead sea turtle Caretta caretta nesting beach in Alabama, USA, were compared between 3 treatment groups: (1) Gulf Shores and Orange Beach with new Leave No Trace ordinances enacted in 2016, (2) Fort Morgan with no ordinance, and (3) the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) and Gulf State Park with Leave No Trace ordinances but no resident human population. The ordinance had no significant effect on crawl distribution or nesting success across the study site post-ordinance. However, the frequency of obstructed crawls in populated areas declined by 18.1% with the ordinance. The presence of a resident population was a more significant driver of obstructed crawls than the ordinance, as the Bon Secour NWR and Gulf State Park had fewer obstructed crawls than either populated treatment. With time and increased compliance, Leave No Trace ordinances may have the potential to improve coastal species management and increase coastal ecosystem services through reduced marine debris entanglement and ingestion, reduced physical damage to the environment, and increased tourism revenue and environmental education.

show abstract

Light pollution affects nesting behavior of loggerhead turtles and predation risk of nests and hatchlings

Cited by 65 publications

References 48 publications

Effects of urbanization on the population structure of freshwater turtles across the United States

Effects of urbanization on the population structure of freshwater turtles across the United States

How Much Lighting is Required to Feel Safe When Walking Through the Streets at Night?

Leave No Trace ordinances for coastal species management: influences on sea turtle nesting success

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About