A plea for a worldwide development of dark infrastructure for biodiversity – Practical examples and ways to go forward

Sordello, Romain; Busson, Samuel; Cornuau, Jérémie H.; Deverchère, Philippe; Faure, Baptiste; Guetté, Adrien; Hölker, Franz; Kerbiriou, Christian; Lengagne, Thierry; Viol, Isabelle Le; Longcore, Travis; Moeschler, Pascal; Ranzoni, Jessica; Ray, Nicolas; Reyjol, Yorick; Roulet, Yoann; Schroer, Sibylle; Secondi, Jean; Valet, Nicolas; Vanpeene, Sylvie; Vauclair, S.

doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2021.104332

Cited by 38 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 123 publications

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“…It warrants further investigation how such impacts cascade through the food web. With more than two thirds of Key Biodiversity Areas worldwide experiencing ALAN (Garrett et al, 2020), and strong indications that ALAN is at least partly driving insect declines around the world (Boyes et al, 2020;Owens et al, 2019), it is important to identify how we can best reduce ecological impacts of ALAN to protect natural (Sordello et al, 2022). Using light levels comparable to conventional LED street lighting, our study suggests that continuous night-time light affects herbivory intensity and plant-herbivore interactions.…”

Section: Ta B L Ementioning

confidence: 90%

Artificial light at night affects plant–herbivore interactions

Cieraad

Strange

Flink

et al. 2022

Journal of Applied Ecology

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1. Artificial light at night (ALAN) affects species' physiology and behaviour, and the interactions between species. Despite the importance of plants as primary producers, it remains poorly understood whether and how effects of ALAN on plants cascade through the food web.2. We assess the extent to which ALAN of different spectra result in plant-mediated insect herbivory damage. In a 6-month field experiment, we exposed plants of differing palatability to three colours of ALAN and a dark control, and assessed plant traits (growth rate, leaf size, foliar density and thickness) and insect herbivory (represented by insect damage as loss of foliage to leaf-chewing insects, and gall abundance by phloem-feeding herbivory).3. We found evidence for plant trait-mediated ALAN effects on herbivory for oak, but not for blueberry. In oak, ALAN of different colours changed the direction of relationships of insect damage with relative growth rate and with leaf thickness. Moreover, we found that the effects of ALAN on herbivory damage differed markedly between forest types within the same locale, particularly in the red light treatment. 4. Synthesis and applications. Our results provide evidence that continuous nighttime light, as provided by street lighting around the world, affects food web interactions. The nature of these effects differed by species and appeared to depend on forest type and the light spectrum employed, thus underlining the context dependency of ALAN in different ecosystems and environmental settings. These findings highlight the complexity of using spectral manipulation as a mitigation measure, and the need for further consideration of ALAN in environmental management and planning, to limit the exposure and impact of cascading effects of artificial light at night on food webs and communities.

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Section: Ta B L Ementioning

confidence: 90%

Artificial light at night affects plant–herbivore interactions

Cieraad

Strange

Flink

et al. 2022

Journal of Applied Ecology

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“…The study of the impact of light pollution on biodiversity is currently in full expansion, amplifying a political and citizen demand for the reclamation of the night 2 , 32 , 33 .…”

Section: The Nsb Dispersion Ratio Indicatormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been proved that the exposure to artificial light at night (ALAN) can induce negative impacts on both biodiversity 1 , 2 and human health 3 , 4 . The emission of artificial light into the nocturnal environment induces harmful consequences on many nocturnal and diurnal species, like bats 5 , insects 6 , toads 7 , fishes 8 or birds 9 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards an absolute light pollution indicator

Deverchère¹,

Vauclair²,

Bosch³

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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The growing concern about the negative impact of artificial light at night on biodiversity and human health increases the need of defining a general indicator that could be used for characterizing light pollution as well as performing both spatial and temporal comparisons. In this paper, we show that the traditional indicators based on direct numerical measurements of sky brightness suffer from significant limitation due to calibration bias and lack of reproducibility. Furthermore, these measures are most often performed in periods of clear sky. They do not reflect the wide variety of meteorological conditions that can produce highly inhomogeneous levels of light pollution on a given site. To overcome these issues, we propose a statistical indicator called NSB Dispersion Ratio. This indicator is derived from a statistically significant number of individual night sky brightness measurements, under various meteorological conditions. It is independent of any absolute photometer calibration. It only requires on-time precise corrections of the contribution of natural light sources such as the Galactic plane.

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“…A number of research have also shown that light pollution became a great concern for the spatial orientation of various species since it causes dramatic shifts in the use of space and movement behaviour. The latter is especially relevant for species that navigate themselves according to natural celestial light sources [4]. Nighttime lighting changes predator-prey relations by providing predators with hunting advantages [5].…”

Section: Light Pollution and Biodiversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Apart from that, light pollution creates significant pressure on habitats, leading to habitat loss and fragmentation. Research has indicated that even species in the protected areas, such as national parks, and Natura 2000, experience a loss of darkness which impacts conservation efforts and can lead to the negative consequences mentioned above [4]. Even though the impacts of ALAN are not homogenous, light pollution affects both aquatic and terrestrial species and habitats.…”

Section: Light Pollution and Biodiversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The response of the Bonn Convention on Migratory Species to light pollution

Yakushina

2022

IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci.

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Light pollution became a major transboundary concern for the environment and biodiversity protection, especially with regard to species migration and spatial orientation. In view of the need for effective nature conservation, the international community has to adapt to the new challenges. The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, or the Bonn Convention, as the main international framework for migratory species protection, has recently taken initial steps towards mitigation of light pollution adverse impacts. In order to understand the response to the new environmental problem at the international level, this article explores and briefly summarizes the response of the Bonn Convention framework on light pollution as a hazardous threat. The article also discusses the potential role of the Convention in the formation of an international regulatory framework on this matter.

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A plea for a worldwide development of dark infrastructure for biodiversity – Practical examples and ways to go forward

Cited by 38 publications

References 123 publications

Artificial light at night affects plant–herbivore interactions

Artificial light at night affects plant–herbivore interactions

Towards an absolute light pollution indicator

The response of the Bonn Convention on Migratory Species to light pollution

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