Version 1
: Received: 22 July 2024 / Approved: 22 July 2024 / Online: 23 July 2024 (00:24:02 CEST)
How to cite:
Middlemiss, K.; Cieraad, E.; Mander, S.; Fischer, J.; Goad, D. Understanding the Impacts of LED Light Pollution in Marine Ecosystems: Phototaxis Response in Fairy Prion. Preprints2024, 2024071721. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.1721.v1
Middlemiss, K.; Cieraad, E.; Mander, S.; Fischer, J.; Goad, D. Understanding the Impacts of LED Light Pollution in Marine Ecosystems: Phototaxis Response in Fairy Prion. Preprints 2024, 2024071721. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.1721.v1
Middlemiss, K.; Cieraad, E.; Mander, S.; Fischer, J.; Goad, D. Understanding the Impacts of LED Light Pollution in Marine Ecosystems: Phototaxis Response in Fairy Prion. Preprints2024, 2024071721. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.1721.v1
APA Style
Middlemiss, K., Cieraad, E., Mander, S., Fischer, J., & Goad, D. (2024). Understanding the Impacts of LED Light Pollution in Marine Ecosystems: Phototaxis Response in Fairy Prion. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.1721.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Middlemiss, K., Johannes Fischer and David Goad. 2024 "Understanding the Impacts of LED Light Pollution in Marine Ecosystems: Phototaxis Response in Fairy Prion" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202407.1721.v1
Abstract
Anthropogenic lighting elicits positive phototaxis responses (i.e., attraction) in birds, insects, and many other species across ecosystems. Impacts from lights in marine systems are poorly understood, despite evidence that vessel lighting can cause seabird disorientation and collisions, potentially leading to injury or mortality. The level of attraction generated by different types of lighting, including light-emitting diodes (LEDs), is also not well understood in most seabirds. Using fairy prions (Pachyptila turtur), a species showing strong positive phototaxis particularly to artificial lights on vessels, we investigated the effects of LED colour and lumen output at a colony during the breeding season. We used six random treatment groups (control (dark), red light, amber low lumen, amber high lumen, white low lumen, and white high lumen) and measured attraction and disorientation. Data was analysed using generalised linear mixed-effects models while accounting for environmental variables. Results showed that the control (“dark”) and red light attracted fewest birds, and attraction/disorientation did not differ between these. Medium responses were elicited by amber low/high and white low, while white high lumen induced the highest abundance and attraction/disorientation response. These results agreed with our desktop study, which predicted response rankings based on each light treatment’s colour spectrum and lumen output and a related species’ spectral response. Furthermore, time of night increased bird counts, as did higher humidity, increased moon illumination, and reduced moon visibility. Our data highlight the need to consider LED colour, lumen output, and time of night to reduce anthropogenic lighting impacts on land and at sea.
Keywords
light pollution; seabird; Procellariiformes; LED; vessel; interactions; artificial light at night
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
