Shedding light on light: benefits of anthropogenic illumination to a nocturnally foraging shorebird

Dwyer, Ross G.; Bearhop, Stuart; Campbell, Hamish A.; Bryant, David M.

doi:10.1111/1365-2656.12012

Cited by 108 publications

(88 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…[41,42]), physiology (e.g. [43][44][45][46]), foraging [24,[47][48][49][50], daily movements [51][52][53][54][55], migratory behaviour (e.g. [56,57]), reproductive behaviour (e.g.…”

Section: Individual Organismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The biological impacts of artificial light at night: the research challenge

Gaston

Visser

Hölker

2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

396

278

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“…[41,42]), physiology (e.g. [43][44][45][46]), foraging [24,[47][48][49][50], daily movements [51][52][53][54][55], migratory behaviour (e.g. [56,57]), reproductive behaviour (e.g.…”

Section: Individual Organismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The biological impacts of artificial light at night: the research challenge

Gaston

Visser

Hölker

2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

396

278

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“…Such physiological responses to ALAN might differ between urban and rural animals, and suggest the possibility that at least some species might adapt to and thus tolerate the presence of artificial lights. Indeed, bright nights can also offer opportunities, for example extending foraging time found for a number of diurnal species (Santos et al, 2010;Dwyer et al, 2013;Russ et al, 2015;Dominoni et al, 2016), thereby likely providing fitness benefits.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Artificial Light at Night Reduces Daily Energy Expenditure in Breeding Great Tits (Parus major)

et al. 2017

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The ecological impact of artificial light at night (ALAN) is an increasingly recognized process that accompanies expanding urbanization. Yet, we have limited knowledge on the impact of ALAN on wild species, and on the potential to mitigate any negative effects by using different light sources and colors. In birds, effects of ALAN on activity levels are reported for several species and, hence, their daily energy expenditure (DEE) may be affected. DEE is a potent mediator of life-history trade-offs and fitness and thus an important aspect to consider when examining the potential long-term ecological effects of ALAN. Previous work has suggested that birds exposed to ALAN show higher levels of provisioning and nocturnal activity, suggesting that white ALAN increases DEE. Other factors regulating DEE, such as provisioning behavior and food availability, might also respond to ALAN and thus indirectly affect DEE. We tested the hypothesis that ALAN increases DEE using an experimental setup where four previously unlit transects were illuminated with either white, green, or red LED light, or left dark as a control treatment. This setup was replicated in eight locations across the Netherlands. We measured DEE of our focal species, the great tit (Parus major), using a novel doubly labeled water technique that uses breath rather than blood samples. Contrary to our expectations, birds feeding their offspring under white and green ALAN showed lower DEE compared to birds in the control dark treatment. Differences in chick provisioning activity did not explain this result, as neither visit rates nor daily activity timing was affected by light treatment. However, food availability under white and green light was much higher compared to red light and the dark control. This difference strongly suggests that the lower DEE under white and green ALAN sites is a consequence of higher food availability in these treatments. This result shows that there can be positive, indirect effects of ALAN for breeding song birds which may balance against the negative direct effects shown in previous studies.

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“…Although the behavioural data previously collected on several avian species had already suggested that light pollution might affect the detection of daylength [15,27,28,41,42], here we used advances in radio-telemetry and bio-logging technology to test this hypothesis directly. Altogether, our results suggest that birds thriving in highly light-polluted areas are exposed to a light environment that could be perceived as a longer photoperiod than in other nearby, but darker, regions.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Does light pollution alter daylength? A test using light loggers on free-ranging European blackbirds (Turdus merula)

Dominoni

Partecke

2015

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Artificial light at night is one of the most apparent environmental changes accompanying anthropogenic habitat change. The global increase in light pollution poses new challenges to wild species, but we still have limited understanding of the temporal and spatial pattern of exposure to light at night. In particular, it has been suggested by several studies that animals exposed to light pollution, such as songbirds, perceive a longer daylength compared with conspecifics living in natural darker areas, but direct tests of such a hypothesis are still lacking. Here, we use a combination of light loggers deployed on individual European blackbirds, as well as automated radio-telemetry, to examine whether urban birds are exposed to a longer daylength than forest counterparts. We first used activity data from forest birds to determine the level of light intensity which defines the onset and offset of daily activity in rural areas. We then used this value as threshold to calculate the subjective perceived daylength of both forest and urban blackbirds. In March, when reproductive growth occurs, urban birds were exposed on average to a 49-min longer subjective perceived daylength than forest ones, which corresponds to a 19-day difference in photoperiod at this time of the year. In the field, urban blackbirds reached reproductive maturity 19 day earlier than rural birds, suggesting that light pollution could be responsible of most of the variation in reproductive timing found between urban and rural dwellers. We conclude that light at night is the most relevant change in ambient light affecting biological rhythms in avian urban-dwellers, most likely via a modification of the perceived photoperiod.

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Shedding light on light: benefits of anthropogenic illumination to a nocturnally foraging shorebird

Cited by 108 publications

References 40 publications

The biological impacts of artificial light at night: the research challenge

The biological impacts of artificial light at night: the research challenge

Artificial Light at Night Reduces Daily Energy Expenditure in Breeding Great Tits (Parus major)

Does light pollution alter daylength? A test using light loggers on free-ranging European blackbirds (Turdus merula)

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