Light-emitting diode street lights reduce last-ditch evasive manoeuvres by moths to bat echolocation calls

Wakefield, Andrew; Stone, Emma L.; Jones, Gareth; Harris, Stephen

doi:10.1098/rsos.150291

Cited by 58 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…() around MH relative to LPS lights was in response to higher densities of prey around the former. As well as attracting insects and creating local abundances of prey for predators such as bats (Rydell, ), white street lights can also interfere with the predator avoidance behaviour of a number of moths, reducing their ability to avoid hunting bats (Svensson & Rydell, ; Wakefield, Stone, Jones, & Harris, ). The underlying causes of insect attraction to light remain unclear, but spectral changes to street lights will have significant impacts on various taxa, altering species distributions, wildlife communities and predator–prey interactions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying the attractiveness of broad‐spectrum street lights to aerial nocturnal insects

Wakefield

Broyles

Stone

et al. 2017

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Abstract1. Sodium street lights, dominated by long wavelengths of light, are being replaced by broad-spectrum, white lights globally, in particular light-emitting diodes (LEDs).These white lights typically require less energy to operate and are therefore considered "eco-friendly". However, little attention has been paid to the impacts white lights may have upon local wildlife populations.2. We compared insect attraction to orange (high-pressure sodium, HPS) and white (metal halide, MH and LED) street lights experimentally using portable street lights and custom-made flight intercept traps.3. Significantly more (greater than five times as many) insects were attracted to white MH street lights than white (4,250 K) LED and HPS lights. There was no statistical difference in the numbers of insects attracted to LED and HPS lights for most taxa caught. However, rarefaction shows a greater diversity of insects caught at LED than HPS lights. Policy implications.With the current, large-scale conversion to white light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, our results give insight into how changes to street light technology may affect wildlife populations and communities. We recommend avoiding metal halide light installations as they attract many more insects than competing technologies. We highlight the need to tailor LED lighting to prevent disturbances across multiple insect taxa.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying the attractiveness of broad‐spectrum street lights to aerial nocturnal insects

Wakefield

Broyles

Stone

et al. 2017

Journal of Applied Ecology

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“…Sensory pollutants such as noise and light affect predator detection and avoidance in a range of taxa including moths (Wakefield et al . ), birds (Meillère, Brischoux & Angelier ) and hermit crabs (Chan et al . ), but there is currently little information on the compounding effects of simultaneous disturbances to multiple sensory modalities (Halfwerk & Slabbekoorn ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Artificial light at night alters trophic interactions of intertidal invertebrates

Underwood

Davies

Queirós

2017

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Despite being globally widespread in coastal regions, the impacts of light pollution on intertidal ecosystems has received little attention. Intertidal species exhibit many night-time-dependent ecological strategies, including feeding, reproduction, orientation and predator avoidance, which are likely negatively affected by shifting light regimes, as has been observed in terrestrial and aquatic taxa. Coastal lighting may shape intertidal communities through its influence on the nocturnal foraging activity of dogwhelks (Nucella lapillus), a widespread predatory mollusc that structures biodiversity in temperate rocky shores. In the laboratory, we investigated whether the basal and foraging activity of this predator was affected by exposure to night-time lighting both in the presence and absence of olfactory predator cues (Carcinus maenas, common shore crab). Assessments of dogwhelks' behavioural responses to night-time white LED lighting were performed on individuals that had been acclimated to night-time white LED lighting conditions for 16 days and individuals that had not previously been exposed to artificial light at night. Dogwhelks acclimated to night-time lighting exhibited natural refuge-seeking behaviour less often compared to control animals, but were more likely to respond to and handle prey irrespective of whether olfactory predator cues were present. These responses suggest night-time lighting likely increased the energetic demand of dogwhelks through stress, encouraging foraging whenever food was available, regardless of potential danger. Contrastingly, whelks not acclimated under night-time lighting were more likely to respond to the presence of prey under artificial light at night when olfactory predator cues were present, indicating an opportunistic shift towards the use of visual instead of olfactory cues in risk evaluation. These results demonstrate that artificial night-time lighting influences the behaviour of intertidal fauna such that the balance of interspecific interactions involved in community structuring may be affected.

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“…This has altered what had for millennia been reliable signals used for regulating a host of biological processes. An extraordinary array of impacts have now been documented, including on gene expression, the physiology and behaviour of organisms, the abundance and distribution of species, their ecological interactions, the composition of communities, and ecosystem processes and services (for a range of recent examples see Altermatt & Ebert, ; Davies et al., ; ffrench‐Constant et al., ; Raap, Pinxten, & Eens, ; Robert, Lesku, Partecke, & Chambers, ; Sanders et al., ; Thums et al., ; Wakefield, Stone, Jones, & Harris, ). Moreover, these effects have been found across a wide diversity of species, including microbes, plants, molluscs, arachnids, insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals (Bennie, Davies, Cruse, & Gaston, ; Gaston, Bennie, Davies, & Hopkins, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nature, extent and ecological implications of night‐time light from road vehicles

Gaston

Holt

2018

Journal of Applied Ecology

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The erosion of night‐time by the introduction of artificial lighting constitutes a profound pressure on the natural environment. It has altered what had for millennia been reliable signals from natural light cycles used for regulating a host of biological processes, with impacts ranging from changes in gene expression to ecosystem processes.Studies of these impacts have focused almost exclusively on those resulting from stationary sources of light emissions, and particularly streetlights. However, mobile sources, especially road vehicle headlights, contribute substantial additional emissions.The ecological impacts of light emissions from vehicle headlights are likely to be especially high because these are (1) focused so as to light roadsides at higher intensities than commonly experienced from other sources, and well above activation thresholds for many biological processes; (2) projected largely in a horizontal plane and thus can carry over long distances; (3) introduced into much larger areas of the landscape than experience street lighting; (4) typically broad “white” spectrum, which substantially overlaps the action spectra of many biological processes and (5) often experienced at roadsides as series of pulses of light (produced by passage of vehicles), a dynamic known to have major biological impacts.The ecological impacts of road vehicle headlights will markedly increase with projected global growth in numbers of vehicles and the road network, increasing the local severity of emissions (because vehicle numbers are increasing faster than growth in the road network) and introducing emissions into areas from which they were previously absent. The effects will be further exacerbated by technological developments that are increasing the intensity of headlight emissions and the amounts of blue light in emission spectra. Synthesis and applications. Emissions from vehicle headlights need to be considered as a major, and growing, source of ecological impacts of artificial night‐time lighting. It will be a significant challenge to minimise these impacts whilst balancing drivers' needs at night and avoiding risk and discomfort for other road users. Nonetheless, there is potential to identify solutions to these conflicts, both through the design of headlights and that of roads.

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Light-emitting diode street lights reduce last-ditch evasive manoeuvres by moths to bat echolocation calls

Cited by 58 publications

References 27 publications

Quantifying the attractiveness of broad‐spectrum street lights to aerial nocturnal insects

Quantifying the attractiveness of broad‐spectrum street lights to aerial nocturnal insects

Artificial light at night alters trophic interactions of intertidal invertebrates

Nature, extent and ecological implications of night‐time light from road vehicles

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