Artificial lights and seabirds: is light pollution a threat for the threatened Balearic petrels?

Petrels are among the most threatened group of birds. On top of facing predation by introduced mammals and incidental bycatch, these seabirds have to deal with an emerging threat, light pollution, which is increasing globally. Fledglings are disoriented and attracted to artificial lights in their maiden night flights from their nests to the sea. Once grounded, they are exposed to multiple threats leading to high mortality. We report on numbers of three petrel species (Balearic shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus, Scopoli’s shearwater Calonectris diomedea, and European storm-petrel Hydrobates pelagicus) rescued on the Balearic Islands, Mediterranean Sea, in the period 1999–2013. We assessed the proportion of grounded fledglings in the population and colonies impact based on radiance levels measured from a nocturnal satellite image. We also calculated the radius of light pollution impact. At least 304 …

Data and Resources

Metadata

Basic information
Resource type Text
Date of creation 2024-09-17
Date of last revision 2024-09-17
Show changelog
Metadata identifier bd33d119-8114-5a60-a1f6-d91fa7eebffa
Metadata language Spanish
Themes (NTI-RISP)
High-value dataset category
ISO 19115 topic category
Other identifier
Keyword URIs
Character encoding UTF-8
Spatial information
INSPIRE identifier ESPMITECOIEPNBFRAGM483
INSPIRE Themes
Geographic identifier Spain
Coordinate Reference System
Spatial representation Type
Bounding Box
"{\"type\": \"Polygon\", \"coordinates\": [[[-18.16, 27.64], [4.32, 27.64], [4.32, 43.79], [-18.16, 43.79], [-18.16, 27.64]]]}"
Spatial resolution of the dataset (m)
Provenance
Lineage statement
Metadata Standard
Conformity
Source dataset
Update frequency
Sources
  1. Journal of Ornithology. Vol. 156
  2. Num. 4
  3. pags. 893-902
Purpose
Process steps
Temporal extent (Start)
Temporal extent (End)
Version notes
Version
Dataset validity
Responsible Party
Name of the dataset creator Rodríguez, A., García, D., Rodríguez, B., Cardona, E., Parpal, L. y Pons, P.
Name of the dataset maintainer
Identifier of the dataset creator
Email of the dataset creator
Website of the dataset creator
Identifier of the dataset maintainer
Email of the dataset maintainer
Website of the dataset maintainer