Marine artificial light at night: An empirical and technical guide

Tidau, Svenja; Smyth, Tim; McKee, David; Wiedenmann, Jörg; D’Angelo, Cecilia; Wilcockson, David; Ellison, Amy; Grimmer, Andrew J.; Jenkins, Stuart R.; Widdicombe, Stephen; Queirós, Ana M.; Talbot, Elizabeth; Wright, A. E.; Davies, Thomas W.

doi:10.1111/2041-210x.13653

Cited by 27 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…The spectrum of moonlight changes throughout the night with lunar phase and elevation [29,30]. As with twilight, this persists to be technically challenging [4] and hence was not manipulated. ALAN was simulated between dawn and dusk (triggered using a CellOptick 12 V photocell) using Aquaray cool white FlexiLED strips (Tropical Marine Centre, UK), with brightness controlled using voltage dimming.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Artificial light at night reverses monthly foraging pattern under simulated moonlight

et al. 2022

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Mounting evidence shows that artificial light at night (ALAN) alters biological processes across levels of organization, from cells to communities. Yet, the combined impacts of ALAN and natural sources of night-time illumination remain little explored. This is in part due the lack of accurate simulations of the complex changes moonlight intensity, timing and spectra throughout a single night and lunar cycles in laboratory experiments. We custom-built a novel system to simulate natural patterns of moonlight to test how different ALAN intensities affect predator–prey relationships over the full lunar cycle. Exposure to high intensity ALAN (10 and 50 lx) reversed the natural lunar-guided foraging pattern by the gastropod mesopredator Nucella lapillus on its prey Semibalanus balanoides . Foraging decreased during brighter moonlight in naturally lit conditions. When exposed to high intensity ALAN, foraging increased with brighter moonlight. Low intensity ALAN (0.1 and 0.5 lx) had no impact on foraging. Our results show that ALAN alters the foraging pattern guided by changes in moonlight brightness. ALAN impacts on ecosystems can depend on lunar light cycles. Accurate simulations of night-time light cycle will warrant more realistic insights into ALAN impacts and also facilitate advances in fundamental night-time ecology and chronobiology.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Artificial light at night reverses monthly foraging pattern under simulated moonlight

et al. 2022

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“…Above surface irradiance was divided into diffuse and direct components and attenuated down the water column according to the method described by Pan and Zimmerman 95 modulated by local cloud cover data obtained from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Re-Analysis 5 96 . Direct in situ measurements were not possible due to the currently still limited sensitivity of hyperspectral sensors 97 . The approach has previously been validated using in situ measurements 95 and was further validated by us against underwater PAR irradiance calculated by the Hydrolight radiative transfer software 98 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To take animal spectral light sensitivity into consideration, overall light intensities were converted to utilized photons using the spectral light sensitivity of the dominant zooplankton species, the krill Thysanoessa 33 . For future studies, validation of modeling using light measurements made below the surface would further improve results 97 , 100 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Animal behavior is central in shaping the realized diel light niche

et al. 2022

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Animal behavior in space and time is structured by the perceived day/night cycle. However, this is modified by the animals’ own movement within its habitat, creating a realized diel light niche (RDLN). To understand the RDLN, we investigated the light as experienced by zooplankton undergoing synchronized diel vertical migration (DVM) in an Arctic fjord around the spring equinox. We reveal a highly dampened light cycle with diel changes being about two orders of magnitude smaller compared to the surface or a static depth. The RDLN is further characterized by unique wavelength-specific irradiance cycles. We discuss the relevance of RDLNs for animal adaptations and interactions, as well as implications for circadian clock entrainment in the wild and laboratory.

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“…Moreover, even within biodiversity research there are large disciplinary differences in the state of the art for measuring light. For example, while an array of measurement systems exists for terrestrial habitats, the attenuation of light in water makes hyperspectral light measurements even more challenging in aquatic ecosystems (Jechow and Hölker, 2019a;Tidau et al, 2021). For biodiversity studies, nocturnal light ideally would be measured in biologically relevant ways, based on thresholds and spectral sensitivities of the species under question (see Q2 and Q5), because different light sources interfere differently with the large diversity of sensory systems in nature (Davies et al, 2013;see Q3).…”

Section: Interdisciplinary Barriers To Measuring Nocturnal Lightmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…ALAN research is inevitably inhibited by the lack of species for which photoreceptor systems and key spectral and light sensitivities of photobiological responses have been adequately described (e.g., overview for marine organisms in Tidau et al, 2021). For one of the best photobiologically studied classes, insects, a recent literature search revealed information on the spectral sensitivity of photoreceptors of only 221 insect species from 82 genera and 13 orders (van der Kooi et al, 2021).…”

Section: Consequences For Biodiversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

11 Pressing Research Questions on How Light Pollution Affects Biodiversity

et al. 2021

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Artificial light at night (ALAN) is closely associated with modern societies and is rapidly increasing worldwide. A dynamically growing body of literature shows that ALAN poses a serious threat to all levels of biodiversity—from genes to ecosystems. Many “unknowns” remain to be addressed however, before we fully understand the impact of ALAN on biodiversity and can design effective mitigation measures. Here, we distilled the findings of a workshop on the effects of ALAN on biodiversity at the first World Biodiversity Forum in Davos attended by several major research groups in the field from across the globe. We argue that 11 pressing research questions have to be answered to find ways to reduce the impact of ALAN on biodiversity. The questions address fundamental knowledge gaps, ranging from basic challenges on how to standardize light measurements, through the multi-level impacts on biodiversity, to opportunities and challenges for more sustainable use.

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Marine artificial light at night: An empirical and technical guide

Cited by 27 publications

References 75 publications

Artificial light at night reverses monthly foraging pattern under simulated moonlight

Artificial light at night reverses monthly foraging pattern under simulated moonlight

Animal behavior is central in shaping the realized diel light niche

11 Pressing Research Questions on How Light Pollution Affects Biodiversity

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