Abstract: The spatial distribution of potentially toxic metals (PTMs) has been shown to be related to anthropogenic activities. Several auxiliary variables, such as those related to remote sensing data (e.g. digital elevation models, land use, and enhanced vegetation index) and soil properties (e.g. pH, soil type and cation exchange capacity), have been used to predict the spatial distribution of soil PTMs. However, these variables are mostly focused on natural processes or a single aspect of anthropogenic activities and cannot reflect the effects of integrated anthropogenic activities. Nighttime lights (NTL) images, a representative variable of integrated anthropogenic activities, may have the potential to reflect PTMs distribution. To uncover this relationship and determine the effects on evaluation precision, the NTL was employed as an auxiliary variable to map the distribution of PTMs in the United Kingdom. In this study, areas with a digital number (DN)>/=50 and an area>30km(2) were extracted from NTL images to represent regions of high-frequency anthropogenic activities. Subsequently, the distance between the sampling points and the nearest extracted area was calculated. Barium, lead, zinc, copper, and nickel concentrations exhibited the highest correlation with this distance. Their concentrations were mapped using distance as an auxiliary variable through three different kriging methods, i.e., ordinary kriging (OK), cokriging (CK), and regression kriging (RK). The accuracy of the predictions was evaluated using the leave-one-out cross validation method. Regardless of the elements, CK and RK always exhibited lower mean absolute error and root mean square error, in contrast to OK. This indicates that using the NTL as the auxiliary variable indeed enhanced the prediction accuracy for the relevant PTMs. Additionally, RK showed superior results in most cases. Hence, we recommend RK for prediction of PTMs when using the NTL as the auxiliary variable.

Abstract: Growing human populations are driving the development of coastal infrastructure such as port facilities. Here, we used passive acoustic telemetry to examine the effects of a jetty and artificial light on the rates of predation of flatback turtle (Natator depressus) hatchlings as they disperse through nearshore waters. When released near a jetty, around 70% of the tagged hatchlings were predated before they could transit the nearshore, irrespective of the presence or absence of artificial light. Only 3 to 23% of hatchlings encountered predators at a second study site nearby where there was no jetty and a similar amount of nesting activity. Evidence for predation was provided by rapid tag detachment due to prey handling by a predator or the extensive movement of the tags within the receiver array suggesting that the tag (and hatchling) was inside the stomach of a predator. We found that 70% of the fish predators that consumed tags used the jetty as a refuge during the day and expanded their range along nearshore waters at night, predating on hatchlings in areas adjacent to the jetty with the highest nesting density. Sampling of potential predators including lutjanid reef fishes under the jetty revealed the presence of turtle hatchlings in their gut contents. By providing daytime refuges for predators, nearshore structures such as jetties have the potential to concentrate predators and they may pose a significant threat to populations of vulnerable species. Such effects must be taken into consideration when assessing the environmental impacts associated with these structures.

Abstract: Since the introduction of electric lighting over a century ago, and particularly in the decades following the Second World War, indications of artificial light on the nighttime Earth as seen from Earth orbit have increased at a rate exceeding that of world population growth during the same period. Modification of the natural photic environment at night is a clear and imminent consequence of the proliferation of anthropogenic light at night into outdoor spaces, and with this unprecedented change comes a host of known and suspected ecological consequences. In the past two decades, the conservation community has gradually come to view light pollution as a threat requiring the development of best management practices. Establishing those practices demands a means of quantifying the problem, identifying polluting sources, and monitoring the evolution of their impacts through time. The proliferation of solid-state lighting and the changes to source spectral power distribution it has brought relative to legacy lighting technologies add the complication of color to the overall situation. In this paper, I describe the challenge of quantifying light pollution threats to ecologically-sensitive sites in the context of efforts to conserve natural nighttime darkness, assess the current state of the art in detection and imaging technology as applied to this realm, review some recent innovations, and consider future prospects for imaging approaches to provide substantial support for darkness conservation initiatives around the world.