Artificial lights at night cause high mortality of seabirds, one of the most endangered groups of birds globally. Fledglings of burrow-nesting seabirds, and to a lesser extent adults, are attracted to and then grounded (i.e., forced to land) by lights when they fly at night. We reviewed the current state of knowledge of seabird attraction to light to identify information gaps and propose measures to address the problem. Although species in families such as Alcidae and Anatidae can be grounded by artificial light, the most affected seabirds are petrels and shearwaters (Procellariiformes). At least 56 species of Procellariiformes, more than one-third of them (24) threatened, are subject to grounding by lights. Seabirds grounded by lights have been found worldwide, mainly on oceanic islands but also at some continental locations. Petrel breeding grounds confined to formerly uninhabited islands are particularly at risk from light pollution due to tourism and urban sprawl. Where it is impractical to ban external lights, rescue programs of grounded birds offer the most immediate and employed mitigation to reduce the rate of light-induced mortality and save thousands of birds every year. These programs also provide useful information for seabird management. However, these data are typically fragmentary, biased, and uncertain and can lead to inaccurate impact estimates and poor understanding of the phenomenon of seabird attraction to lights. We believe the most urgently needed actions to mitigate and understand light-induced mortality of seabirds are estimation of mortality and effects on populations; determination of threshold light levels and safe distances from light sources; documentation of the fate of rescued birds; improvement of rescue campaigns, particularly in terms of increasing recovery rates and level of care; and research on seabird-friendly lights to reduce attraction.
Shearwaters and petrels (hereafter petrels) are highly adapted seabirds that occur across all the world's oceans. Petrels are a threatened seabird group comprising 124 species. They have bet-hedging life histories typified by extended chick rearing periods, low fecundity, high adult survival, strong philopatry, monogamy and long-term mate fidelity and are thus vulnerable to change. Anthropogenic alterations on land and at sea have led to a poor conservation status of many petrels with 52 (42%) threatened
The extent and intensity of artificial night lighting has increased with urban development worldwide. The resulting light pollution is responsible for mortality among many Procellariiformes species which show nocturnal activity on their breeding grounds. Here, we report light‐induced mortality of Procellariiformes during a 9‐year study (1998–2006) on Tenerife, the largest island of the Canary archipelago. A total of 9880 birds from nine species were found grounded, the majority being Cory’s Shearwaters Calonectris diomedea (93.4%). For this species the majority of grounded birds were fledglings (96.4%), which fall apparently while leaving their nesting colony for the first time; for the smaller species (storm‐petrels) adult birds were more often grounded than fledglings. For almost all species, grounding showed a seasonal pattern linked with their breeding cycle. Certain phases of the moon influenced grounding of Cory’s Shearwater, with the extent of grounding being reduced during phases of full moon. The percentage of fledglings attracted to lights in relation to the fledglings produced annually varied between species and years (0–1.3% for the Madeiran Storm‐petrel Oceanodroma castro; 41–71% for Cory’s Shearwater). Mean adult mortality rates also varied between species (from 0.4% for the European Storm‐petrel Hydrobates pelagicus and the Cory’s Shearwater, to 2.3% for the Manx Shearwater Puffinus puffinus). Here we show that light‐induced mortality rates are of concern, at least for petrels and small shearwaters. Thanks to efforts involving civil cooperation, 95% of grounded birds have been returned to the wild. To minimize the impact of artificial lights on petrels we recommend several conservation measures: continuing rescue campaigns, alteration of light signatures and reduction of light emissions during the fledging peaks. Furthermore, we recommend that a monitoring program for petrel populations be implemented, as well as further studies to assess the fate of released fledglings and continued research to address why petrels are attracted to lights.
An understanding of the distribution and habitat associations of far-ranging marine predators is being increasingly applied to protect these species from anthropogenic threats at sea (e.g. oil spills and fisheries bycatch). Within this framework, this research on Cory's shearwater Calonectris diomedea integrates vessel-based survey and tracking data to provide 2 distinct, yet complementary, perspectives of the habitats of this species in the western Mediterranean during incubation in June and chick rearing in August of 2007. We used a hierarchical modelling approach to (1) delineate the foraging habitat of the species using vessel-based surveys and (2) identify its feeding habitat based on tracking data within the Information-Theoretic framework. Our habitat modelling analyses suggest that shearwaters respond to complex bio-physical coupling, illustrated by their association with frontal features and elevated ocean productivity. Our models yielded moderate predictions of Cory's shearwater habitats within 2 distinct spatial scales. At the mesoscale, the foraging range of the species comprised the continental and insular shelf-slope waters of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands, between the Gulf of Lions to the north and Cape Palos to the south. At the coarse scale, the tracking data highlighted important feeding areas within this larger foraging range: 3 continental shelf-slope 'hotspots' -(1) Gulf of Lions, (2) Cape Creus-Barcelona-Ebro Delta and (3) Cape La Nao-Cape Palos; from north to south -as well as the insular shelf-slope areas around the Balearic Islands. These results match previous observations of the foraging range and feeding patterns of the species, and are consistent with the interpretation of the regional oceanography. This study highlights how the integration of tracking and vessel-based survey data can provide a wider understanding of the predictability of aggregation (i.e. hotspots) and the key oceanographic habitats of far-ranging seabirds at multiple spatial scales. Thus, complementary data integration is a step forward in conservation studies of far-ranging marine top predators. OPEN PEN ACCESS CCESS Contribution to the Theme Section 'Spatiotemporal dynamics of seabirds in the marine environment'Mar Ecol Prog Ser 391: [183][184][185][186][187][188][189][190][191][192][193][194][195][196][197] 2009 weakly swimming prey become concentrated at specific features with enhanced vertical (upwelling/downwelling) and horizontal (convergence/divergence) water flow (e.g. Hammer & Schneider 1986, Franks 1992, Haury et al. 1978. In turn, mobile predators concentrate and forage at these same features in response to elevated localized productivity and dense prey patches (e.g. Rodhouse et al. 1996, Johnston et al. 2005.The increasing awareness of the serious threats that marine top predators face at sea, such as fisheries bycatch and oil spills, has triggered the development of conservation measures to ensure the protection of important key marine areas (e.g. foraging areas and migr...
Light pollution and its consequences on ecosystems are increasing worldwide. Knowledge on the threshold levels of light pollution at which significant ecological impacts emerge and the size of dark refuges to maintain natural nocturnal processes is crucial to mitigate its negative consequences. Seabird fledglings are attracted by artificial lights when they leave their nest at night, causing high mortality. We used GPS data-loggers to track the flights of Cory’s shearwater Calonectris diomedea fledglings from nest-burrows to ground, and to evaluate the light pollution levels of overflown areas on Tenerife, Canary Islands, using nocturnal, high-resolution satellite imagery. Birds were grounded at locations closer than 16 km from colonies in their maiden flights, and 50% were rescued within a 3 km radius from the nest-site. Most birds left the nests in the first three hours after sunset. Rescue locations showed radiance values greater than colonies, and flight distance was positively related to light pollution levels. Breeding habitat alteration by light pollution was more severe for inland colonies. We provide scientific-based information to manage dark refuges facilitating that fledglings from inland colonies reach the sea successfully. We also offer methodological approaches useful for other critically threatened petrel species grounded by light pollution.
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