Modern societies rely heavily on artificial light at night, but this convenience comes at a cost not only to people’s health but also to ecosystems. Image: Jürgen Scheere (University of Jena)
Modern societies rely heavily on artificial light at night, but this convenience comes at a cost not only to people's health but also to ecosystems. Image: Jürgen Scheere (University of Jena) - A new collection of papers on artificial light at night show the impact of light pollution to be surprisingly far-reaching, with even low levels of artificial light disrupting species communities and entire ecosystems. Published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, the special theme issue, which includes 16 scientific papers, looks at the effects of light pollution in complex ecological systems, including soil, grassland, and insect communities. Led by researchers at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, the collection notes the increasing ubiquity of light pollution, while emphasising the domino effect light pollution has on ecosystem function and stability. Night skies are becoming brighter as the use of artificial lighting spreads across the globe. With an estimated annual uptick of up to 10%, the prevalence of light pollution is disrupting the natural light cycles that have been largely consistent throughout the Earth's history. These light cycles are vitally important to organisms who rely on light as a source of energy and information.
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