29 research outputs found
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Guidelines for consideration of bats in lighting projects.
Eighty percent of the world’s population are currently exposed to light-polluted skies, and the Milky Way is no longer visible to more than a third of humanity. The pace the light pollution is increasing is faster than global population growth and economic development. While environmental conditions at night are being dramatically and rapidly altered, circadian rhythms, behaviour and ecology of plants and animals are imminently influenced. In the same time, effects of artificial lighting, various illumination schemes and spectra on biodiversity, including bats, are currently insufficiently understood, whereas only a vague notion of required mitigation and compensation activities exists among decision-makers and other parties involved in lighting projects. Although the bats are almost exclusively nocturnal and extremely sensitive to multiple effects of light pollution, its negative impact on bats alongside essential measures needed to preserve unfragmented nightscapes for these animals are often disregarded during impact assessments, planning and operation.
In this volume, we tried to compile available evidence related to the effect of artificial light at night on the European bats. Based on the current state of knowledge, solutions are proposed concerning possible ways to avoid, mitigate and compensate the adverse effects which lighting projects may have on bats and their functional habitats. We also outlined research priorities for future studies, required for in-depth understanding of the problem and assessing efficiency of proposed mitigative measures
Urbanisation generates multiple trait syndromes for terrestrial animal taxa worldwide
Cities can host significant biological diversity. Yet, urbanisation leads to the loss of habitats, species, and functional groups. Understanding how multiple taxa respond to urbanisation globally is essential to promote and conserve biodiversity in cities. Using a dataset encompassing six terrestrial faunal taxa (amphibians, bats, bees, birds, carabid beetles and reptiles) across 379 cities on 6 continents, we show that urbanisation produces taxon-specific changes in trait composition, with traits related to reproductive strategy showing the strongest response. Our findings suggest that urbanisation results in four trait syndromes (mobile generalists, site specialists, central place foragers, and mobile specialists), with resources associated with reproduction and diet likely driving patterns in traits associated with mobility and body size. Functional diversity measures showed varied responses, leading to shifts in trait space likely driven by critical resource distribution and abundance, and taxon-specific trait syndromes. Maximising opportunities to support taxa with different urban trait syndromes should be pivotal in conservation and management programmes within and among cities. This will reduce the likelihood of biotic homogenisation and helps ensure that urban environments have the capacity to respond to future challenges. These actions are critical to reframe the role of cities in global biodiversity loss.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio