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96 results for “Artificial light at night”

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dryad36/100

Assessing the effects of artificial light at night on biodiversity across latitude – Current knowledge gaps

Aim: Exposure to artificial light at night (ALAN) is a risk factor for organisms. Considering the spread and increasing intensity of night brightness across the globe, and the key role of light at all biological levels, alterations of ecosystems are expected. Yet, we cannot predict the severity of the effects of ALAN in several biomes because little information is available outside the temperate zone. We reviewed current knowledge and identified traits that could be targeted to fill this knowledge gap in order to contribute to the elaboration of a biogeographical framework for the study of ALAN at the global scale. Location: global. Time period: current and next decades. Method: We analysed the latitudinal variation of ALAN and focused on environmental factors that vary with latitude but that have been overlooked. We reviewed biological traits that exhibit latitudinal variation and depend on light and photoperiod and compiled information about the predicted changes of human demography and road networks across different world regions. Results: Cloud cover amplifies ALAN far away from urbanized areas. Because of the higher frequency of overcast sky nights, exposure effects may be stronger both at high latitudes and across a large fraction of the intertropical zone, though at different times of the year. Intertropical biomes host the largest fraction of global biodiversity. Although currently they are not the most exposed to ALAN, their human populations are growing, and urbanized areas and road networks are expanding. Hence, ALAN could have strong ecological consequences, with cloud cover as an aggravating factor. Perspectives: Knowledge gaps currently limit our ability to predict the effects of ALAN in different biomes. Therefore, it will be important to start investigating the consequences of this novel environmental factor across the globe, in order to develop a relevant theoretical framework.

opencc-zeroAug 2022View details →

dryad36/100

Relative importance of intensity and spectrum of artificial light at night in disrupting behavior of a nocturnal rodent

The influence of light spectral properties on circadian rhythms is of substantial interest to laboratory-based investigation of the circadian system and to field-based understanding of the effects of artificial light at night. The tradeoffs between intensity and spectrum regarding masking behaviors are largely unknown, even for well-studied organisms. We used a custom LED illumination system to document the response of wild type house mice (Mus musculus) to 1-hr nocturnal exposure of all combinations of four intensity levels (0.01, 0.5, 5, and 50 lx) and three correlated color temperatures (CCT; 1750, 1950, and 3000 K). Higher intensities of light (50 lx) suppressed cage activity substantially, and consistently more for the higher CCT light (91% for 3000 K; 53% for 1750 K). At the lower intensities (0.01 lx), mean activity was increased, with the greatest increases for the lowest CCT (12.3% increase at 1750 K; 3% increase at 3000 K). Multiple linear regression confirmed the influence of both CCT (p&lt;0.001) and intensity (p&lt;0.001) on changes in activity (r2=0.66, F9,171=3.33; p<0.001) with the scaled effect size of intensity 3.6 times greater than CCT. Activity suppression was significantly lower for male than female mice (p&lt;0.0001). Assessment of light-evoked cFos expression in the suprachiasmatic nucleus at 50 lx showed no significant difference between high and low CCT exposure. The significant differences by spectral composition illustrate a need to account for light spectrum in circadian studies of behavior and confirm that spectral controls can mitigate some, but certainly not all, of the effects of light pollution on species in the wild.

opencc-zeroJun 2024View details →

dryad36/100

Data from: Artificial light at night increases growth and reproductive output in Anolis lizards

Since the invention of electric lighting, artificial light at night (ALAN) has become a defining, and evolutionarily novel, feature of human-altered environments especially in cities. ALAN imposes negative impacts on many organisms, including disrupting endocrine function, metabolism, and reproduction. However, we do not know how generalized these impacts are across taxa that exploit urban environments. We exposed brown anole lizards, an abundant and invasive urban exploiter, to relevant levels of ALAN in the lab and assessed effects on growth and reproduction at the start of the breeding season. Male and female anoles exposed to ALAN increased growth and did not suffer increased levels of corticosterone. ALAN exposure induced earlier egg-laying, likely by mimicking a longer photoperiod, and increased reproductive output without reducing offspring quality. These increases in growth and reproduction should increase fitness. Anoles, and potentially other taxa, may be resistant to some negative effects of ALAN and able to take advantage of the novel niche space ALAN creates. ALAN and both its negative and positive impacts may play a crucial role in determining which species invade and exploit urban environments.

opencc-zeroDec 2019View details →

dryad36/100

Lifelong exposure to artificial light at night impacts stridulation and locomotion activity patterns in the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus

This dataset contains data from a laboratory experiments described in the paper: "Levy, K., Wegrzyn, Y., Efronny, R., Barnea, A., & Ayali, A. 2021 Lifelong exposure to artificial light at night impacts stridulation and locomotion activity patterns in the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus. Proc. R. Soc. B 20211626. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.1626">https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.162</a>". Artificial light at night (ALAN) is increasing worldwide,with most of the world population living under light-polluted skies. Growing awareness of the harmful effects of ALAN calls for more comprehensive understanding of these effects. The stridulation and locomotion patterns of adult male crickets reared under different lifelong ALAN intensities were monitored simultaneously for five consecutive days in custom-made anechoic chambers. Activity periods and acrophases were compared between the experimental groups. Control crickets exhibited a robust rhythm, stridulating at night and demonstrating locomotor activity during the day. In contrast, ALAN affected both the relative level and timing of the crickets' nocturnal and diurnal activity. ALAN induced free-running patterns, manifested in significant changes in the median and variance of the activity periods, and even arrhythmic behavior. The magnitude of disruption was light intensity dependent, revealing an increase in the difference between the activity periods calculated for stridulation and locomotion in the same individual. Our results demonstrate that ecologically-relevant ALAN intensities affect crickets' behavioral patterns, and may lead to decoupling of locomotion and stridulation behaviors at the individual level, and to loss of synchronization at the population level.

opencc-zeroSep 2021View details →

dryad36/100

Color of artificial light at night affects incubation behavior in the great tit, Parus major

Artificial light at night (ALAN) has been recognized as a biodiversity threat due to the drastic effects it can have on many organisms. In wild birds, artificial illumination alters many natural behaviors that are important for fitness, including chick provisioning. Although incubation is a key determinant of the early developmental environment, studies into the effects of ALAN on bird incubation behavior are lacking. We measured nest temperature in nest boxes of great tits during the incubation period in two consecutive years. Nest boxes were located in eight previously dark field sites that have been experimentally illuminated since 2012 with white, green, or red light, or were left dark. We tested if light treatment affected mean nest temperature, number of times birds leave the nest (off-bout frequency), and off-bout duration during the incubation period. Subsequently, we investigated if incubation behavior is related to fitness. We found that birds incubating in the white light during a cold, early spring had lower mean nest temperatures at the end of incubation, both during the day and during the night, compared to birds in the green light. Moreover, birds incubating in white light took fewer off-bouts, but off-bouts were on average longer. The opposite was true for birds breeding in the green light. Low incubation temperatures and few but long off-bouts can have severe consequences for developing embryos. In our study, eggs from birds that took on average few off-bouts needed more incubation days to hatch compared to eggs from birds that took many off-bouts. Nevertheless, we found no clear fitness effects of light treatment or incubation behavior on the number of hatchlings or hatchling weight. Our results add to the growing body of literature that shows that effects of ALAN can be subtle, can differ due to the spectral composition of light, and can be year-dependent. These subtle alterations of natural behaviors might not have severe fitness consequences in the short-term. However, in the long term they could add up, negatively affecting parent condition and survival as well as offspring recruitment, especially in urban environments where more environmental pollutants are present.

opencc-zeroSep 2021View details →

dryad36/100

Dim artificial light at night alters immediate early gene expression throughout the avian brain

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is a pervasive pollutant that alters physiology and behavior. However, the underlying mechanisms triggering these alterations are unknown, as previous work shows that dim levels of ALAN may have a masking effect, bypassing the central clock. Light stimulates neuronal activity in numerous brain regions which could in turn activate downstream effectors regulating physiological response. In the present study, taking advantage of immediate early gene (IEG) expression as a proxy for neuronal activity, we determined the brain regions activated in response to ALAN. We exposed zebra finches to dim ALAN (1.5 lux) and analyzed 24 regions throughout the brain. We found that the overall expression of two different IEGs, cFos and ZENK, in birds exposed to ALAN were significantly different from birds inactive at night. Additionally, we found that ALAN-exposed birds had significantly different IEG expression from birds inactive at night and active during the day in several brain areas associated with vision, movement, learning and memory, pain processing, and hormone regulation. These results give insight into the mechanistic pathways responding to ALAN that underlie downstream, well-documented behavioral and physiological changes.

opencc-zeroSep 2023View details →

dryad36/100

Artificial light at night (ALAN) decreases plant diversity and performance in experimental grassland communities – Data on species biomass and traits

Artificial light at night (ALAN) affects many areas of the world and is increasing globally. To date, there has been limited and inconsistent evidence regarding the consequences of ALAN on plant communities as well as the fitness of their constituent species. ALAN could be beneficial for plants as they need light as an energy source, but they also need darkness for regeneration and growth. We created model communities composed of 16 plant species sown, exposed to a gradient of ALAN ranging from 'moonlight only' to conditions like situations typically found directly underneath a streetlamp. We measured plant community composition and its production (biomass), as well as functional traits of three plant species from different functional groups (grasses, herbs, legumes) in two separate harvests. We found that biomass was reduced by 33% in the highest ALAN treatment compared to the control, Shannon diversity decreased by 43% and Evenness by 34% in the first harvest. Some species failed to establish in the second harvest. Specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content and leaf hairiness responded to ALAN. These responses suggest that plant communities will be sensitive to increasing ALAN, and they flag a need for plant conservation activities that consider impending ALAN scenarios.

opencc-zeroSep 2023View details →

dryad36/100