Betreff: Sparrows |
Von: Alfonso Balmori |
Datum: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 23:45:04 +0200 |
Affiliation: | a Research Institute for Nature and Forest. Brussels. Belgium |
AbstractA possible effect of long-term exposure to
low-intensity electromagnetic radiation from mobile phone (GSM) base
stations on the number of House Sparrows during the breeding season was
studied in six residential districts in Belgium. We sampled 150 point
locations within the 6 areas to examine small-scale geographic
variation in the number of House Sparrow males and the strength of
electromagnetic radiation from base stations. Spatial variation in the
number of House Sparrow males was negatively and highly significantly
related to the strength of electric fields from both the 900 and
1800 MHz downlink frequency bands and from the sum of these bands
(Chi2-tests and AIC-criteria, P < 0.001).
This negative relationship was highly similar within each of the six
study areas, despite differences among areas in both the number of
birds and radiation levels. Thus, our data show that fewer House
Sparrow males were seen at locations with relatively high electric
field strength values of GSM base stations and therefore support the
notion that long-term exposure to higher levels of radiation negatively
affects the abundance or behavior of House Sparrows in the wild.
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Keywords: Antenna; Bird; Electromagnetic radiation;
GSM base station; Non thermal effect
With best Regards
Alfonso Balmori
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