Abstract: Coastal areas provide critical nesting habitat for marine turtles. Understanding how artificial light might impact populations is key to guide management strategies. Here we assess the extent to which nesting populations of four marine turtle species—leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea), hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) and two subpopulations of loggerhead (Caretta caretta) turtles—are exposed to light pollution across 604 km of the Brazilian coast. We used yearly night-time satellite images from two 5-year periods (1992–1996 and 2008–2012) from the US Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Programme (DMSP) to determine the proportion of nesting areas that are exposed to detectable levels of artificial light and identify how this has changed over time. Over the monitored time-frame, 63.7% of the nesting beaches experienced an increase in night light levels. Based on nest densities, we identified 54 reproductive hotspots: 62.9% were located in areas potentially exposed to light pollution. Light levels appeared to have a significant effect on nest densities of hawksbills and the northern loggerhead turtle stock, however high nest densities were also seen in lit areas. The status of all species/subpopulations has improved across the time period despite increased light levels. These findings suggest that (1) nest site selection is likely primarily determined by variables other than light and (2) conservation strategies in Brazil appear to have been successful in contributing to reducing impacts on nesting beaches. There is, however, the possibility that light also affects hatchlings in coastal waters, and impacts on population recruitment may take longer to fully manifest in nesting numbers. Recommendations are made to further this work to provide deeper insights into the impacts of anthropogenic light on marine turtles.

Abstract: Light pollution contributes to the degradation and reduction of habitat for wildlife. Nocturnally nesting and hatching sea turtle species are particularly sensitive to artificial light near nesting beaches. At local scales (0.01–0.1 km), artificial light has been experimentally shown to deter nesting females and disorient hatchlings. This study used satellite-based remote sensing to assess broad scale (~1–100s km) effects of artificial light on nesting patterns of loggerhead (Caretta caretta), leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) and green turtles (Chelonia mydas) along the Florida coastline. Annual artificial nightlight data from 1992 to 2012 acquired by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) were compared to an extensive nesting dataset for 368, ~1 km beach segments from this same 21-year period. Relationships between nest densities and artificial lighting were derived using simultaneous autoregressive models to adjust for the presence of spatial autocorrelation. Though coastal urbanization increased in Florida during this period, nearly two-thirds of the surveyed beaches exhibited decreasing light levels (N = 249); only a small fraction of the beaches showed significant increases (N = 52). Nest densities for all three sea turtle species were negatively influenced by artificial light at neighborhood scales (<100 km); however, only loggerhead and green turtle nest densities were influenced by artificial light levels at the individual beach scale (~1 km). Satellite monitoring shows promise for light management of extensive or remote areas. As the spectral, spatial, and temporal resolutions of the satellite data are coarse, ground measurements are suggested to confirm that artificial light levels on beaches during the nesting season correspond to the annual nightlight measures.