Satellite Data Versus Female Nesting Density

Aug 01, 2015

Satellite Data Versus Female Nesting Density                
 
NOAA VIIRS satellite imagery from sampling area (Figure a). Imagery was a composite of moonless & cloudless night skies for the month of May 2014, spatial resolution is 500m/pixel (ca. 180 data points). The coastline was trimmed from the larger imagery and expressed as a line graph by latitude. Units of measurement are W m-2 sr-1 μm-1 . Female nesting density (Figure b) versus average light values within the sampling area of ca 7o km. Nesting data were mean values of 2009-2014 acquired from the data archive maintained at Seaturtle.org.

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About This Project

Loggerhead Sea Turtles Dig The Dark! Artificial Light Effects on Hatchling Movement

Coastal Carolina University

Our goal is to measure the effect of coastal light pollution on hatchling loggerhead ability to find the ocean. We hypothesize that there will be a threshold intensity above which hatchlings become disoriented and less efficient at "sea finding".

Artificial light is a pollutant which is increasing in U.S. urban environments at a rate of 6% per year. Determining hatchling response to various light levels will be important to the long term conservation strategies for endangered sea turtle species.