Abstract
Although we see artificial night light as a benefit, this light proves to be detrimental to other wildlife species. Sea turtles are one group of animals in which artificial light interferes with their natural behavior. At night female sea turtles nest on coastal beaches, lay their eggs, and return to the ocean. Any artificial light that illuminates the beach can disorient nesting females seeking to return to the ocean. Similarly, sea turtle hatchlings can also become disoriented by artificial light, making them unable to reach the ocean waters and instead travel toward the mainland. Being unable to reach the ocean, both adult sea turtles and hatchlings have decreased chances of survival because of the impact of artificial light. Using remotely sensed light data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) archived by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) measures of light increase and decrease between the years of 1992 – 2013 can be seen along the coast of Florida. With the use of ArcGIS, data was cropped and calibrated so that only information pertaining to Florida was displayed on the same scale of measurement. Again, with the use of ArcGIS, linear regression analysis was run on the 22 calibrated images to obtain the slope. The newly calculated data displays the areas of light change across the state. This new data can be used to analyze the relationship between light pollution and sea turtle nesting behaviors on the beach.
Date Created
April 2017
STARS Citation
Phillips, KeTaira, "Measuring Artificial Light Levels on Florida Sea Turtle Nesting Beaches from 1992 to 2013 Using Satellite Data" (2017). EGS Content. 415.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/egs_content/415
https://works.bepress.com/ketaira-phillips/1/download/