Artificial skyglow disrupts celestial migration at night

Light pollution forces a change in dung beetle orientation behavior

“…Increasing global light pollution 1,2 threatens the night-time darkness to which most animals are adapted. Light pollution can have detrimental effects on behavior, [3][4][5] including by disrupting the journeys of migratory birds, 5,6 sand hoppers, [7][8][9] and moths. 10 This is particularly concerning, since many night-active species rely on compass information in the sky, including the moon, 11,12 the skylight polarization pattern, 13,14 and the stars, 15 to hold their course.…”

Biologically important artificial light at night on the seafloor

“…Our results provide evidence that low sea surface artificial light irradiances caused by sky glow from cities can result in biologically important exposure levels in seafloor habitats. Cloud cover amplifies the propagation of sky glow, a known effect particularly in urban areas 26 which can disrupt migration undertaken in cloudy conditions in birds 27 and amphipod crustacean 28 and is more likely in temperature region/regions further away from the equator. Artificial sky glow extends the geographical influence of localised direct lighting to hundreds of kilometres 29 , suggesting that impacts on marine organisms may be widespread, and urgently need quantifying.…”

Mimicking skyglow at ecosystem level in a large-scale lake enclosure facility

“…27,28), indicate that skyglow could influence wild animals over large areas. Another recent study suggests that low skyglow-like ALAN levels disrupt the migration of Talitrus saltator (commonly known as sandhoppers), that normally use celestial light at night for orientation (29). Finally, the amplitude of diel vertical migration of zooplankton can be affected by skyglow, as shown in a seminal experiment conducted in small enclosures deployed in an urban lake (30).…”