Unravelling the impact of astronomical light pollution on individual behaviour in a nocturnal bird.

Astronomical light pollution (ALP) is one of the most pervasive, rapidly-expanding pollutants causing a broad-scale illumination of the nocturnal sky. It infiltrates far into natural areas and fundamentally changes the natural night-time environment (e.g. lunar cycle) which has been consistent in evolutionary history and tightly controls animals' circadian rhythms. With a near-exclusive focus of research on light pollution caused by direct point sources, we urgently need to understand impact of ALP on nocturnal wildlife. This project is among the first to examine the impact of ALP on the behaviour of free-living nocturnal animals. I aim to investigate i) behavioural differences between natural sites and sites subjected to ALP, ii) behavioural responses across a gradient of ALP, iii) individual responses to daily fluctuations in ALP and iv) individual responses to experimentally-induced ALP. I will achieve this by using state-of-the-art tracking technologies, combined with site-specific light measurements, simulations and manipulations. This allows me to relate variation in daily behaviour (rest, sing, fly, forage) of a nocturnal insectivore, the European Nightjar, to fluctuations in ALP and natural light. Given the sensitivity of the nightjars to subtle changes in ambient light and ten years of experience with the model species in Europe, Africa and Asia, this is an unprecedented opportunity to investigate a research frontier that remains largely unexplored.

Keywords:BEHAVIOURAL ECOLOGY

Disciplines:Animal ecology, Vertebrate biology, Behavioural ecology, Community ecology, Chronobiology