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Yearly 9/11 Tribute Shows Light Pollution’s Effects on Birds


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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/02/science/september-11-tribute-lights-birds.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront

 

Excerpts:

 

The annual September 11 “Tribute in Light Memorial”in Manhattan has provided a unique opportunity to study and quantify the effect.

The multiyear study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that birds gathered in greater densities, flew repeatedly in circles and vocalized loudly when the memorial’s powerful beams were illuminated.

However, when the lights were turned off for brief periods, the birds were quick to resume their normal flight paths and behaviors. Although the researchers were not calling for any changes to the annual event, their findings suggest a simple fix for ongoing light pollution in other places.

“Wherever we can turn lights off at night, we should be doing it,” said Andrew Farnsworth, an ornithologist with Cornell University and an author of the study, which claims to be the first to quantify bird responses to urban nighttime light.

In 2010, the beams attracted so many birds that the researchers convinced the memorial’s operators to turn off the lights for 20 minute intervals, which presented “a unique opportunity” to study “behavior in birds when these incredibly powerful lights were on versus when they were off,” said Dr. Farnsworth. The lights were briefly extinguished again in 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016.

Compiling data from seven nonconsecutive years, the researchers found that bird density near the instillation was 20 times greater than surrounding areas, causing sometimes fatal collisions with structures and other birds. Alterations to the birds’ migratory paths also put them at risk of death and starvation from arriving late to their destinations.

All such behaviors ceased within minutes of the lights being turned off. The installation affected more than 1.1 million birds cumulatively in those seven years, the researchers said.

 

The PLoS citation: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/09/26/1708574114.abstract

 

High-intensity urban light installation dramatically alters nocturnal bird migration
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