Effects of street lighting technologies on the success and quality of pollination in a nocturnally pollinated plant

Ecosphere

Artificial light at night (ALAN) represents one of the fastest growing anthropogenic environmental changes globally, with background sky brightness increasing by 6%/yr (Hölker et al. 2010). Although often associated with urbanization, artificial light also affects natural and semi‐natural ecosystems, with temperate ecosystems experiencing some of the fastest increases in exposure (Bennie et al. 2015). The nature of artificial lighting is also changing rapidly. An increasing drive for energy efficiency, cost reduction, and improved visibility has led to the widespread implementation of novel lighting technologies for street lighting. Most notably, part‐night (PN) lighting regimes are being introduced; whereby, lights may be switched off or dimmed at certain times of night (Stone et al. 2015). Also, the incumbent lamp types, especially high‐pressure sodium (HPS) lights, are being replaced by arrays of light‐emitting diodes (LEDs; Gaston et al. 2015). The uptake of LED lighting can alter assemblages of nocturnal invertebrates (Davies et al. 2017) and is recognized as a key emerging threat to biodiversity in urban ecosystems due to the greater emission of blue light by LEDs compared to incumbent lighting technologies (Stanley et al. 2015).

Click here for link to full article

Previous Post: Ecological benefits of part-night lighting revealed

Next Post: Supporting health, wellbeing and performance of humans