Our project
The electrical
energy conversion into artificial light has brought significant progress to
humanity. Extent and intensity of artificial lighting have increased at an astonishing
rate of 6% per year with urban development around the World, which has also increased
light pollution, i.e. the alteration of natural light levels in the environment
by artificial lights. Artificial lighting constitutes 19% of global
electricity, amounting in emissions of greenhouse gases, 1900 Mt per year of
CO2. For these reasons, the European Ecodesign Directive established a
framework to phase out particularly energy-intensive lights. Until now, economic
and energetic optimization has mainly driven eco-friendly lighting strategies.
Policy objectives should not only target economic optimisation, but also
consider the cultural, social, energetic and ecological impacts of lighting
technological innovations.
On archipelagos worldwide, high numbers of fledglings of different seabird species are attracted to artificial lights during their first flights to the sea. This attraction causes high mortality because fatal collisions during landing, or once grounded, by vehicle collisions, predation, starvation, and dehydration. To avoid/reduce light-induced mortality, rescue campaigns involving the cooperation of local governments, environment agencies, NGOs and public are carried out in many places. Our current knowledge on seabird attraction to artificial lights mainly comes from information obtained at the campaigns. In this project, we aim to understand the mechanisms responsible of fatal attraction in order to design more eco-friendly artificial lights and more efficient rescue campaigns. We propose several innovative experiments and observational studies which are in the cutting edge of knowledge in the emerging field of the ecological consequences of light pollution. Our results will help to reduce light-induced mortality in one of the most endangered bird Order, Procellariiformes, as well as to understand the effect of light pollution on some evolutionary traits. |
|