As artificial light increases in volume and geographical coverage around the world, a variety of animals are suffering ill effects.
Diana Kwon
Oct 1, 2018
Some of the consequences of light pollution are immediate and obvious—for example, a moth that flies into a streetlamp may die on impact. But there are also less visible, possibly more damaging effects, such as changes to predator-prey and plant-pollinator relationships that can reverberate through ecosystems.
© lucy conklin
| 1 | Fatal attraction | Illuminated skyscrapers and spotlights can lure migrating birds. Animals may become disoriented and end up in deadly collisions or perish from exhaustion. |
| 2 | Dining by streetlight | Streetlamps, floodlights, and other luminous objects attract a wide range of insects at night. Predators home in on light-loving swarms to take advantage of the congregated prey. |
| 3 | Lonely nights | Nighttime lighting drives away some nocturnal pollinators, reducing the ability of plants in lit areas to bear fruit. |
| 4 | Shifting communities | Artificial illumination at night can increase the proportion of microorganisms in freshwater sediments that are able to photosynthesize under low light levels. |
| 5 | Desynchronized | Artificially lit nights can perturb an animal’s circadian rhythms, altering the timing of activities, such as sleep, foraging, mating, and migration, that are tightly controlled by the body’s internal clocks. |
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