Content uploaded by Julie Pauwels
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Julie Pauwels on Jan 02, 2017
Content may be subject to copyright.
Fast and massive development of cities is accompanied with the implantation of numerous artificial lights.
Light pollution has become a major issue for biodiversity conservation (Hölker et al. 2010) especially for
nocturnal species such as bats (Azam et al. 2015).
Artificial lights can affect the ability of bats to travel through a landscape and reduce the number of
commuting routes they can use, i.e. landscape connectivity.
Hence it is of great importance to consider « dark » corridors and account for light pollution while
modeling the landscape connectivity.
How to account for light pollution while modeling nocturnal connectivity ?
How to predict the impact of a change in the spatial distribution of light on ecological corridors ?
Data points
of bat activity
Environment
characteristics
Light pollution
variable
Step 1
Predict bat activity over the territory
from punctual activity data and
environmental characteristics
Predicted intensity of bat
activity over the territory
Step 2
Model nocturnal connectivity using
the Least-Cost Path algorithm
Actual nocturnal
connectivity on the territory
Cost of a given least cost path
Cost of movement in a corridor
LIGHTING SCENARIO
Original light
pollution picture
Modified light
pollution picture
Potential nocturnal
connectivity following
the scenario change in
lighting
Conclusion & perspective
l
The extinction of public parks has an important positive effect on the nocturnal connectivity for bats on the
territory : even seemingly small changes in public lighting can be of importance for bats conservation.
l
Overlaying ecological corridors based only on environmental characteristics with light pollution information
might allow to point at critical areas which protection and management could benefit both diurnal and
nocturnal species.
References
Hölker F., Wolter C., Perkin E.K. and
Tockner K. (2010) Trends in Ecology &
Evolution, 25, 681–682
Azam C., Kerbiriou C., Vernet A., Julien
J.F., Bas Y., Plichard L., Maratrat J., and Le
Viol I. (2015) Global Change Biology,
21(12), 4333-4341
+
low
low
High
High
20km
Contact
jpauwels@edu.mnhn.fr
Ecological corridors in urban landscapes
The impact of artificial light on the movements of bats
Extinction of public
parks lights
4th International conference on Artificial Light At Night, 26-28th September 2016, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Julie Pauwels1,2, Laforge A.3, Le Viol I.1, Coulon A.1, Julien J.-F.1, Azam C.1, Bas Y.1, Besnard A.3, Fonderflick J.3,
Faure B.4, Haquart A.4, Valet N.2, Kerbiriou C.1
1 Centre d’Ecologie et des Sciences de la Conservation (CESCO), Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle de Paris, France ; 2Département Biodiversité, Airele,
Roost-Warendin, France ; 3 Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), Montpellier, France ; 4 Service Recherche et Développement, Biotope, Mèze, France
Acknowledgements : The authors thank all the persons who contributed to the collection and analysis of the data : Y. Tison,
S. Wrobel, A. Bissonet, V. Thuillier and M. Lageard. This research work is part of the TRAMENOIRE project, a two-year
interdisciplinary project for the development of a dark corridor within the region of Lille. The project is funded by the Region
Nord Pas de Calais and coordinated by Biotope.