Ecological Light Pollution

Longcore, Travis; Rich, Catherine

doi:10.2307/3868314

Cited by 353 publications

(527 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

515

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Human health has been shown to be greatly affected by reductions in sleep duration and depth (Naiman 2006). Light pollution or night sky pollution directly affects an ecosystem service (darkness) that has been shown to impact sleep and potentially human health (Chepesiuk 2009) as well as causing deaths of migratory birds and sea turtle hatchlings (Longcore and Rich 2004).…”

Section: Environmental Needsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of the Elements of Human Well-Being with an Emphasis on the Contribution of Ecosystem Services

Summers

Smith

Case

et al. 2012

AMBIO

311

156

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Natural ecosystems perform fundamental lifesupport services upon which human civilization depends. However, many people believe that nature provides these services for free and therefore, they are of little or no value. While we do not pay for them, we pay significantly for their loss in terms of wastewater treatment facilities, moratoriums on greenhouse gases, increased illnesses, reduced soil fertility and losses in those images of nature that contribute to our basic happiness. Little is understood about the well-being benefits of the natural environment and its ecosystem services. The interwoven relationship of ecosystems and human well-being is insufficiently acknowledged in the wider philosophical, social, and economic well-being literature. In this article, we discuss an approach to examine human well-being and the interactions of its four primary elements-basic human needs, economic needs, environmental needs, and subjective wellbeing-and ecosystem services.

show abstract

Section: Environmental Needsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of the Elements of Human Well-Being with an Emphasis on the Contribution of Ecosystem Services

Summers

Smith

Case

et al. 2012

AMBIO

311

156

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In the era of industrialization, artificial illumination is becoming a major force. While the effects of light at night on human health have been the subject of extensive research [133 -135], studies on animals are less common and have only begun to accelerate in recent years [136]. Light at night was shown to have negative effects in rodents when chronically administered at intensities comparable with those of street lamps (approx.…”

Section: (B) Masking Effect Of Moonlightmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chronobiology by moonlight

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Most studies in chronobiology focus on solar cycles (daily and annual). Moonlight and the lunar cycle received considerably less attention by chronobiologists. An exception are rhythms in intertidal species. Terrestrial ecologists long ago acknowledged the effects of moonlight on predation success, and consequently on predation risk, foraging behaviour and habitat use, while marine biologists have focused more on the behaviour and mainly on reproduction synchronization with relation to the Moon phase. Lately, several studies in different animal taxa addressed the role of moonlight in determining activity and studied the underlying mechanisms. In this paper, we review the ecological and behavioural evidence showing the effect of moonlight on activity, discuss the adaptive value of these changes, and describe possible mechanisms underlying this effect. We will also refer to other sources of night-time light (‘light pollution’) and highlight open questions that demand further studies.

show abstract

“…Exposure to even low-intensity night lighting (,0.3 lux-comparable with full moonlight on a clear night) may be a major disruptor of behavioural and physiological processes [1,2] and yet many species living in urban environments continually experience far greater intensities of light at night (LAN) [3]. The ecological consequences of the increasing presence of artificial LAN are well documented in animals although the evidence from natural populations, in particular, is frequently correlational [2,4,5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Melatonin: a possible link between the presence of artificial light at night and reductions in biological fitness

Jones

Durrant

Michaelides

et al. 2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The mechanisms underpinning the ecological impacts of the presence of artificial night lighting remain elusive. One suspected underlying cause is that the presence of light at night (LAN) supresses nocturnal production of melatonin, a key driver of biological rhythm and a potent antioxidant with a proposed role in immune function. Here, we briefly review the evidence for melatonin as the link between LAN and changes in behaviour and physiology. We then present preliminary data supporting the potential for melatonin to act as a recovery agent mitigating the negative effects of LAN in an invertebrate. Adult crickets ( Teleogryllus commodus ), exposed to constant illumination, were provided with dietary melatonin (concentrations: 0, 10 or 100 µg ml −1 ) in their drinking water. We then compared survival, lifetime fecundity and, over a 4-week period, immune function (haemocyte concentration, lysozyme-like and phenoloxidase (PO) activity). Melatonin supplementation was able only partially to mitigate the detrimental effects of LAN: it did not improve survival or fecundity or PO activity, but it had a largely dose-dependent positive effect on haemocyte concentration and lysozyme-like activity. We discuss the implications of these relationships, as well as the usefulness of invertebrates as model species for future studies that explore the effects of LAN.

show abstract

Ecological Light Pollution

Cited by 353 publications

References 0 publications

A Review of the Elements of Human Well-Being with an Emphasis on the Contribution of Ecosystem Services

A Review of the Elements of Human Well-Being with an Emphasis on the Contribution of Ecosystem Services

Chronobiology by moonlight

Melatonin: a possible link between the presence of artificial light at night and reductions in biological fitness

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About