Page 34 - 2006 DT 12 Issues

The Comet’s Tail sea turtle by modifying city lights may The presence of a full moon when the
have implications in learning to protect birds take off, however, substantially
eading out past the sprawl other species. reduces the losses, because its natural
that has become Las Vegas, The effects of light pollution have light dominates urban lights.
Hthe contrast between the land- been a bane to astronomers for decades Chad Moore of the National Park
scape you’ve left behind and the one in and the subject of several lawsuits. Service and teammate Dan Duriscoe
just front of you is evident. While you Some cities have opted for more dark- have developed an automated all-sky
may have to travel further these days sky friendly low-pressure sodium stationary camera capable of precise
to break the “sight barrier,” escaping lights that allow astronomers to easily measurement of light pollution. Moore
the city’s grasp doesn’t take long . . . in filter out the narrow spectra these lights is the program manager for a small team
daylight. Once the sun sets, though, it produce. Low-pressure sodium lamps of scientists that measure, restore, and
takes a whole lot longer. Sky glow fol- have helped the sea turtles. They either promote the proper management of the
lows behind you like the tail of some don’t see or aren’t distracted by the light night sky resource. For the past two
immense comet. frequency the lamps produce. Sodium years, the men have been inventorying
The consequences of development lamps are a solution for these animals. the night sky at dozens of US national
near wilderness areas have been under But such simple solutions don’t work for parks. Their data demonstrate that light
study since the 1960s. However, it everybody. Some animals do no better pollution from urban areas many miles
wasn’t until 1988 that Kenneth D. Frank, with narrow-spectrum yellow light than away penetrates deep into some of
a physician and amateur naturalist whose more traditional artificial lighting. Noc- America’s remote wild places. Using a
specialty was moths, published a scien- turnal frogs and salamanders fare even computer, they created a single mosaic
tific paper that summarized all that was worse and time is running out for many of the heavens. After processing the
known at the time about the effects of other species. data, they were able to quantify the
artificial light on ecology—and it wasn’t For more than a century, birds have light shining on Nevada’s Great Basin
much. Why did moths perish in their been observed colliding with large, National Park. The slight glow from Las
fascination with lamps and flame? Such brightly lit structures to which they Vegas, 300 miles to the south, was one of
little-studied phenom- are attracted. the most prominent light sources in the
ena led Frank and a Experiments park’s sky on a moonless night.
few other scientists to have shown The reach of a city’s sky glow de-
research the impacts that migrat- pends on several factors—the light’s
of artificial light on i n g b i r d s intensity, cloud cover, moisture, at-
the physiology and become dis- mospheric dust and, at distant sites,
behavior of noctur- oriented by the curvature of the earth. Extending
nal animals. Their the red lights in all directions, light from Las Ve-
efforts led to a grow- of television gas reaches 8 of 38 parks that Moore
ing number of studies an d co m- has measured.
documenting these ef- munications Moore’s photos can identify geo-
fects in many species towers, as graphic areas where sensitive species are
including birds, reptiles and amphibians, well. The birds’ magnetic compasses most likely to be affected. The inventory
land mammals, insects, and even fish. seem to break down in red light, ac- of images can also serve as a reference
On the coast of Florida, sea turtles cording to Sidney A. Gauthreaux, a bird point to measure future changes in
struggling to survive encroaching ur- researcher at Clemson (S.C.) Univer- light pollution.
ban development on their nesting sites sity. On the Hawaiian island of Kauai, New research is attempting to
were being decimated because lights Newell’s shearwaters make their first document the biological effects of these
from nearby hotels and other sources flight to the sea on an autumn evening. measurements. United States Geologic
led hatchlings astray in their attempt About 10 percent never make it, crash- Survey scientists Robert Fisher and Ted
to reach the sea. Michael Salmon of ing into lit bridges and buildings, and Case are trying to determine why popu-
Florida Atlantic University in Boca Ra- another 15 percent are injured from lations of the California glossy snake,
ton believes that efforts to conserve the crashes attributable to artificial light. a nocturnal reptile, have disappeared

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