Date of Submission
Spring 2014
Academic Programs and Concentrations
Division of Science, Mathematics, and Computing; Biology
Project Advisor 1
Bruce Robertson
Abstract/Artist's Statement
An animal’s ability to make accurate decisions about foraging, habitat selection, and mating is crucial to that animal’s fitness. Urbanization, which I define as rapid and intense anthropogenic change to the planet, causes biodiversity loss, habitat loss, and environmental degradation. Urbanization and pollution can create ecological traps, which are low-quality habitats that are preferred over high-quality habitats. These traps negatively impact the dependability of historically reliable cues, which negatively affects animals’ behavior because they are tricked into choosing low-quality habitats. Polarized light has been a historically reliable cue for water and migration for many insects and possibly birds, but polarized light pollution has altered the dependability of this cue. Knowing whether birds use polarized light as a cue for water is important for determining the impact polarized light pollution could be imposing on birds. I created a modified bird feeder, with panels in the degree of light polarized, to test whether birds use polarized light as cue to detect water. I predicted that birds would land on the most polarizing panel, and I found that compared to the other panels, birds significantly landed on the most polarizing panel. While the results of this paper do not directly indicate that birds use polarized light as a cue for water, they do definitively show that birds see polarized light. These are important preliminary results that will help guide future research.
Open Access Agreement
On-Campus only
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Motal, Alexia Nicole, "Avian species in the Hudson Valley may use polarized light as a cue to detect water, a pilot, ecological study" (2014). Senior Projects Spring 2014. 155.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2014/155
This work is protected by a Creative Commons license. Any use not permitted under that license is prohibited.
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