https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bird-conservation-international/article/abs/electric-infrastructure-poses-a-significant-threat-at-congregation-sites-of-the-globally-threatened-steppe-eagle-aquila-nipalensis-in-saudi-arabia/115B1CD3657C2B16D309F50A938A8718

The authors call for the urgent safeguarding of powerlines that cause mortality near known Steppe Eagle congregation sites, and the adoption and implementation of regulations that ensure that future infrastructure is constructed with designs that are safe for birds.

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Bonn, 9 December 2021 – Light Pollution will be the focus of the World Migratory Bird Day 2022 campaign. 

Artificial light is increasing globally by at least 2 per cent per year and it is known to adversely affect many bird species. Light pollution is a significant threat to migratory birds, causing disorientation when they fly at night, leading to collisions with buildings, perturbing their internal clocks, or interfering with their ability to undertake long-distance migrations.  

Solutions to light pollution are readily available. For instance, more and more cities in the world are taking measures to dim building lights during migration phases in spring and autumn. Best practice guidelines are also being developed under the Convention on Migratory Species to address this growing issue and ensure that action is taken globally to help birds migrate safely.

Read more at: https://www.worldmigratorybirdday.org/news/2021/world-migratory-bird-day-2022-theme-focus-light-pollution

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The United Nations’ Office of Outer Space Affairs is considering issues of light pollution spanning from streetlights to satellites.

BY: MONICA YOUNG OCTOBER 22, 2021

The statistics are stunning: More than 80% of the world’s population (and more than 99% of those in the U.S. and Europe) live under light-polluted skies. Most people can’t see the Milky Way. All this artificial sky glow has real impacts, affecting everything from insect reproduction to bird migration to crop yields to human health. Yet over the last 25 years, light pollution has only increased, by at least 50% overall — and in some areas, it’s up 400%.

More recently, the problem of light pollution has expanded in an unexpected way. The growing number of artificial satellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO) are increasingly adding moving lights, glints, and even diffuse glow to the night sky. Over the past two years, the number of active and defunct satellites has doubled, to a total of about 5,000 as of March 30, 2021. And companies have filed to launch tens of thousands more into orbit within the decade. While astronomers have always traveled away from civilization to reach darker skies, now satellites will streak across the fields of view of even the most rural telescopes.

Astronomers are engaging with satellite companies, such as in two conferences dubbed SATCON1 and SATCON2, which took place in the summers of 2020 and 2021, respectively. But the challenges facing satellite operators and astronomers alike are daunting.

Now, to bring the issue to a higher level — and address ground-based and space-based lights in one fell swoop — these issues are going to the United Nations. Astronomers, dark-sky advocates, industry representatives, and members of the UN’s Office for Outer Space Affairs took part in the Dark and Quiet Skies for Science and Society workshop on October 3–7, 2021. (The conference was virtual, not because of COVID-19 but because of an active volcano in La Palma, Spain, which was where the workshop was to have taken place.)

ARTIFICIAL LIGHTS AT NIGHT

Reducing light pollution doesn’t have to mean eliminating lights; outdoor lighting just needs to be directed where it is needed, when it is needed. And critically, any outdoor lights should be amber-colored, rather than the white/blue LEDs that disrupt the circadian rhythms of humans and wildlife alike.

Simple enough, right? So why aren’t we doing these things? Some individual cities have instituted dark-sky lighting ordinances. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, did so recently, and Tucson and Flagstaff in Arizona have and continue to implement even stricter measures in place, in part to protect nearby observatories. Representatives from Morocco and China gave updates during the conference on dark-sky efforts, and Andreas Hänel (Dark Sky Germany) reported that his country has particularly strong participation in dark-sky measures.

While such grass roots actions are difficult to implement and unevenly distributed, they also provide crucial examples to guide broader policies. “You want best practices that can be applied internationally, unilaterally, for all satellites,” suggested space diplomat Peter Martinez. “Use the outcomes of bottom-up efforts as inputs to move toward a set of international guidelines that could be adopted by the UN General Assembly.”

However, the secretary of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses for Outer Space (COPUOS), Niklas Hedman, cautioned that the committee might not consider ground-based light pollution as part of their purview. “We have to be careful so COPUOS doesn’t dismiss it,” he said at a final roundtable.

Read more at: https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/taking-dark-skies-to-the-united-nations/

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Abstract

The extent of artificial night light and anthropogenic noise (i.e., “light” and “noise”) impacts is global and has the capacity to threaten species across diverse ecosystems. Existing research involving impacts of light or noise has primarily focused on noise or light alone and single species; however, these stimuli often co-occur and little is known about how co-exposure influences wildlife and if and why species may vary in their responses. Here, we had three aims: (1) to investigate species-specific responses to light, noise, and the interaction between the two using a spatially explicit approach to model changes in abundance of 140 prevalent bird species across North America, (2) to investigate responses to the interaction between light exposure and night length, and (3) to identify functional traits and habitat affiliations that explain variation in species-specific responses to these sensory stimuli with phylogenetically informed models. We found species that responded to noise exposure generally decreased in abundance, and the additional presence of light interacted synergistically with noise to exacerbate its negative effects. Moreover, the interaction revealed negative emergent responses for several species that only reacted when light and noise co-occurred. Additionally, an interaction between light and night length revealed 47 species increased in abundance with light exposure during longer nights. In addition to modifying behavior with optimal temperature and potential foraging opportunities, birds might be attracted to light, yet suffer inadvertent physiological consequences. The trait that most strongly related to avian response to light and noise was habitat affiliation. Specifically, species that occupy closed habitat were less tolerant of both sensory stressors compared to those that occupy open habitat. Further quantifying the contexts and intrinsic traits that explain how species respond to noise and light will be fundamental to understanding the ecological consequences of a world that is ever louder and brighter.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.15663

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Sriram Murali

Being under a sky full of stars makes you feel tiny, humble, kind and caring. But, thanks to light pollution, most people lack this connection. Millions of kids are robbed of finding their passion for Astronomy. We’ve lost the potential for thousands of great minds. We are losing our identity only increasing the difference between us. In less than hundred years, we have drastically altered our night time environment.

Light pollution affects our health, disrupts our sleep patterns, increases the risk of cancer, diabetes, hormonal disorders and other diseases. Millions of birds are killed each year colliding into brightly lit buildings. Baby sea turtles(hatchlings) are often confused by bright lights and never make it to the sea. And we’ve only begun to understand the effects. But, fortunately, there are ways to fix it. The International Dark Sky Association recommends using shielded lighting, low color temperature LEDs(2700K and less), motion sensors for safety than leaving lights on all night.

Unshielded bright LEDs create a lot of glare and impairs vision. Several cities and municipalities have recently switched to dark sky friendly lighting and people are welcoming the change – they’ve hardly noticed any difference in lighting and in fact, hated harsh bright lights. Tucson, Phoenix, Montreal, the state of Georgia are all examples. It makes me really happy and optimistic hearing these success stories. Fighting light pollution does not mean turning all your lights off, it’s about being wise with our lighting choices.

Music: Imagine by Ryan Taubert

Copyright All Rights Reserved

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Auto-translated from Dutch. Original article https://www.naturetoday.com/intl/nl/nature-reports/message/?msg=27358

Province of South Holland , Working Group Zeearend Nederland

28-FEB-2021 – A juvenile White-tailed Eagle that was tagged in 2019 in the Dordtse Biesbosch had a collision with the rotors of a wind turbine in Germany on February 24 and died. With an increase in the number of wind turbines as well as the number of White-tailed Eagles in Germany and the Netherlands, more and more White-tailed Eagles will be killed by wind turbines.

At the wind farm she flew between two wind turbines at rotor height. Approaching a third wind turbine was fatal. At 11:10 am she died as a result of colliding with the rotors.

Wind turbines as a growing problem

In Germany, 158 cases of dead Sea Eagles who were victims of a collision with a wind turbine were recorded between 2002 and 2019. In recent decades, the number of wind farms in Germany has grown, but also the number of White-tailed Eagles, which has resulted in an increase in the number of casualties from collisions. The number of turbine casualties also increased in other Northern and Eastern European countries. In the Netherlands, two cases of collisions with wind turbines in Flevoland have been known so far, both of which were found by accident. The Dutch breeding population of White-tailed Eagles is still small, but is increasing strongly. The new developments in wind energy will therefore also cause problems in the Netherlands due to the death of birds, including White-tailed Eagles.

Read more at:

https://www.naturetoday.com/intl/nl/nature-reports/message/?msg=27358

More on the topic:

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A new study suggests that migratory birds have a kind of built-in GPS that helps them navigate the world, even when they’re far from home.

By Rachel Fritts

March 04, 2021

The birds were getting restless. It was 2018 and fall was in the air, triggering their instinct to leave Austria for sub-Saharan Africa. Problem was, these Eurasian Reed Warblers were somehow starting out in entirely the wrong place, in Neftekamsk, Russia—or so they thought.

In reality, the birds were at the Biological Station Lake Neusiedl in Illmitz, Austria, very close to their summer nesting grounds and more than 1,600 miles from Neftekamsk. An international team of researchers had exposed the reed warblers to an electrical field that mimicked the geomagnetic signature of the Russian city to see how they would respond. Apparently convinced by the scientists’ trick, the birds tried to fly back toward their typical migratory route.

The study, out last month in Current Biology, provides the first direct evidence that migratory birds can use Earth’s magnetic field to extrapolate their position and get back on course, even when they are blown far afield. “It shows what an important cue this magnetic field must be to them,” says Richard Holland, an animal behavior researcher with Bangor University in Wales and co-author of the study. “Despite everything else still telling them they’re on their normal route, they react as though they’ve been displaced two and a half thousand kilometers to the northeast.”

Read more at: https://tinyurl.com/4kzfkjy6

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First direct observation of magnetic field affecting autofluorescence of flavins in living cells.

Summary: New research shows how X-Men villain Magneto’s super powers could really work. Researchers have made the first observations of biological magnetoreception – live, unaltered cells responding to a magnetic field in real time. This discovery is a crucial step in understanding how animals from birds to butterflies navigate using Earth’s magnetic field and addressing the question of whether weak electromagnetic fields in our environment might affect human health.

FULL STORY

Researchers in Japan have made the first observations of biological magnetoreception — live, unaltered cells responding to a magnetic field in real time. This discovery is a crucial step in understanding how animals from birds to butterflies navigate using Earth’s magnetic field and addressing the question of whether weak electromagnetic fields in our environment might affect human health.

“The joyous thing about this research is to see that the relationship between the spins of two individual electrons can have a major effect on biology,” said Professor Jonathan Woodward from the University of Tokyo, who conducted the research with doctoral student Noboru Ikeya. The results were recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).

Researchers have suspected since the 1970s that because magnets can attract and repel electrons, Earth’s magnetic field, also called the geomagnetic field, could influence animal behavior by affecting chemical reactions. When some molecules are excited by light, an electron can jump from one molecule to another and create two molecules with single electrons, known as a radical pair. The single electrons can exist in one of two different spin states. If the two radicals have the same electron spin, their subsequent chemical reactions are slow, while radical pairs with opposite electron spins can react faster. Magnetic fields can influence electron spin states and thus directly influence chemical reactions involving radical pairs. Read more at: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210105104832.htm

Article Reference: University of Tokyo. “Magnets dim natural glow of human cells, may shed light on how animals migrate: First direct observation of magnetic field affecting autofluorescence of flavins in living cells.” ScienceDaily. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210105104832.htm>

Journal Reference:

1. Noboru Ikeya, Jonathan R. Woodward. Cellular autofluorescence is magnetic field sensitive. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021; 118 (3): e2018043118 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2018043118

Significance

The radical pair mechanism is the favored hypothesis for explaining biological effects of weak magnetic fields, such as animal magnetoreception and possible adverse health effects. To date, however, there is no direct experimental evidence for magnetic effects on radical pair reactions in cells, the fundamental building blocks of living systems. In this paper, using a custom-built microscope, we demonstrate that flavin-based autofluorescence in native, untreated HeLa cells is magnetic field sensitive, due to the formation and electron spin–selective recombination of spin-correlated radical pairs. This work thus provides a direct link between magnetic field effects on chemical reactions measured in solution and chemical reactions taking place in living cells.

Abstract

We demonstrate, by direct, single-cell imaging kinetic measurements, that endogenous autofluorescence in HeLa cells is sensitive to the application of external magnetic fields of 25 mT and less. We provide spectroscopic and mechanistic evidence that our findings can be explained in terms of magnetic field effects on photoinduced electron transfer reactions to flavins, through the radical pair mechanism. The observed magnetic field dependence is consistent with a triplet-born radical pair and a B_1/2 value of 18.0 mT with a saturation value of 3.7%.

https://www.pnas.org/content/118/3/e2018043118

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Since 2010, the scientific literature has exploded with research examining light’s effects on individual species, from birds to fish to trees to humans. The news, in general, isn’t good. Artificial light changes animal migration and reproduction, tree leaf growth, bird nesting and fledging, pollination, human sleep, and much more. It even affects the spread of diseases. In July, researchers reported that West Nile–virus–infected house sparrows that live in light- polluted conditions are infectious for two days longer than those that live in darkness are, increasing the risk of a West Nile outbreak by 41 percent.

Read more here:

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/09/light-pollution-destroying-environment/598561/?utm_campaign=2019-10-06&utm_source=email&utm_medium=knowable-newsletter

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