scholarly journals Color of Artificial Light at Night Affects Incubation Behavior in the Great Tit, Parus major

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie E. van Dis ◽  
Kamiel Spoelstra ◽  
Marcel E. Visser ◽  
Davide M. Dominoni
Keyword(s):  
Incubation Period ◽  
White Light ◽  
Spectral Composition ◽  
Green Light ◽  
Light Treatment ◽  
Artificial Light ◽  
Nest Temperature ◽  
Light At Night ◽  
Incubation Behavior ◽  
Nest Boxes

Artificial light at night (ALAN) has been recognized as a biodiversity threat due to the drastic effects it can have on many organisms. In wild birds, artificial illumination alters many natural behaviors that are important for fitness, including chick provisioning. Although incubation is a key determinant of the early developmental environment, studies into the effects of ALAN on bird incubation behavior are lacking. We measured nest temperature in nest boxes of great tits during the incubation period in two consecutive years. Nest boxes were located in eight previously dark field sites that have been experimentally illuminated since 2012 with white, green, or red light, or were left dark. We tested if light treatment affected mean nest temperature, number of times birds leave the nest (off-bout frequency), and off-bout duration during the incubation period. Subsequently, we investigated if incubation behavior is related to fitness. We found that birds incubating in the white light during a cold, early spring had lower mean nest temperatures at the end of incubation, both during the day and during the night, compared to birds in the green light. Moreover, birds incubating in white light took fewer off-bouts, but off-bouts were on average longer. The opposite was true for birds breeding in the green light. Low incubation temperatures and few but long off-bouts can have severe consequences for developing embryos. In our study, eggs from birds that took on average few off-bouts needed more incubation days to hatch compared to eggs from birds that took many off-bouts. Nevertheless, we found no clear fitness effects of light treatment or incubation behavior on the number of hatchlings or hatchling weight. Our results add to the growing body of literature that shows that effects of ALAN can be subtle, can differ due to the spectral composition of light, and can be year-dependent. These subtle alterations of natural behaviors might not have severe fitness consequences in the short-term. However, in the long term they could add up, negatively affecting parent condition and survival as well as offspring recruitment, especially in urban environments where more environmental pollutants are present.

scholarly journals The preference and costs of sleeping under light at night in forest and urban great tits

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1905) ◽  
pp. 20190872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeynep N. Ulgezen ◽  
Teemu Käpylä ◽  
Peter Meerlo ◽  
Kamiel Spoelstra ◽  
Marcel E. Visser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oxalic Acid ◽  
White Light ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Daily Activity ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Spectral Composition ◽  
Green Light ◽  
Artificial Light ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Light At Night

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is an increasing phenomenon associated with worldwide urbanization. In birds, broad-spectrum white ALAN can have disruptive effects on activity patterns, metabolism, stress response and immune function. There has been growing research on whether the use of alternative light spectra can reduce these negative effects, but surprisingly, there has been no study to determine which light spectrum birds prefer. To test such a preference, we gave urban and forest great tits (Parus major) the choice where to roost using pairwise combinations of darkness, white light or green dim light at night (1.5 lux). Birds preferred to sleep under artificial light instead of darkness, and green was preferred over white light. In a subsequent experiment, we investigated the consequence of sleeping under a particular light condition, and measured birds' daily activity levels, daily energy expenditure (DEE), oxalic acid as a biomarker for sleep debt and cognitive abilities. White light affected activity patterns more than green light. Moreover, there was an origin-dependent response to spectral composition: in urban birds, the total daily activity and night activity did not differ between white and green light, while forest birds were more active under white than green light. We also found that individuals who slept under white and green light had higher DEE. However, there were no differences in oxalic acid levels or cognitive abilities between light treatments. Thus, we argue that in naive birds that had never encountered light at night, white light might disrupt circadian rhythms more than green light. However, it is possible that the negative effects of ALAN on sleep and cognition might be observed only under intensities higher than 1.5 lux. These results suggest that reducing the intensity of light pollution as well as tuning the spectrum towards long wavelengths may considerably reduce its impact.

scholarly journals Early Birds by Light at Night: Effects of Light Color and Intensity on Daily Activity Patterns in Blue Tits

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 323-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maaike de Jong ◽  
Samuel P. Caro ◽  
Phillip Gienapp ◽  
Kamiel Spoelstra ◽  
Marcel E. Visser
Keyword(s):  
White Light ◽  
Daily Activity ◽  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Spectral Characteristics ◽  
Spectral Composition ◽  
Green Light ◽  
Daily Rhythms ◽  
Light At Night ◽  
Blue Tits ◽  
Daily Activity Patterns

Artificial light at night disturbs the daily rhythms of many organisms. To what extent this disturbance depends on the intensity and spectral composition of light remain obscure. Here, we measured daily activity patterns of captive blue tits ( Cyanistes caeruleus) exposed to similar intensities of green, red, or white light at night. Birds advanced their onset of activity in the morning under all light colors but more under red and white light than under green light. Offset of activity was slightly delayed in all light colors. The total activity over a 24-h period did not change but birds moved a part of their daily activity into the night. Since the effect of red and white lights are comparable, we tested the influence of light intensity in a follow-up experiment, where we compared the activity of the birds under different intensities of green and white light only. While in the higher range of intensities, the effects of white and green light were comparable; at lower intensities, green light had a less disturbing effect as compared with white light on daily rhythms in blue tits. Our results show that the extent of this disturbance can be mitigated by modulating the spectral characteristics and intensity of outdoor lighting, which is now feasible through the use of LED lighting.

scholarly journals Pollination and fruit infestation under artificial light at night:light colour matters

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michiel P. Boom ◽  
Kamiel Spoelstra ◽  
Arjen Biere ◽  
Eva Knop ◽  
Marcel E. Visser
Keyword(s):  
White Light ◽  
Green Light ◽  
Silene Latifolia ◽  
Artificial Light ◽  
Natural Ecosystems ◽  
Seed Predator ◽  
Artificial Lighting ◽  
Plant Insect Interactions ◽  
Artificial Illumination ◽  
Insect Interactions

Abstract Rapid human population growth and associated urbanization lead to increased artificial illumination of the environment. By changing the natural light–dark cycle, artificial lighting can affect the functioning of natural ecosystems. Many plants rely on insects in order to reproduce but these insects are known to be disturbed by artificial light. Therefore, plant–insect interactions may be affected when exposed to artificial illumination. These effects can potentially be reduced by using different light spectra than white light. We studied the effect of artificial lighting on plant–insect interactions in the Silene latifolia–Hadena bicruris system using a field set-up with four different light treatments: red, green, white and a dark control. We compared the proportion of fertilized flowers and fertilized ovules as well as the infestation of fruits by Hadena bicruris, a pollinating seed predator. We found no difference in the proportion of fertilized flowers among the treatments. The proportion of fruits infested by H. bicruris was however significantly higher under green and white light and a significantly lower proportion of fertilized ovules was found under green light. We show that artificial light with different colours impacts plant–insect interactions differently, with direct consequences for plant fitness.

scholarly journals Alternative light colors in suckling piglet creep area: preference and validation tests in swine maternity

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Caroline Paggi ◽  
Taciana Aparecida Diesel ◽  
Paulo Armando Victoria de Oliveira ◽  
Arlei Coldebella ◽  
Diovani Paiano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
White Light ◽  
Red Light ◽  
Green Light ◽  
Light Treatment ◽  
Large White ◽  
Led Light ◽  
Validation Test ◽  
Suckling Piglets ◽  
Light Color ◽  
Validation Tests

ABSTRACT: We performed a two-stage experiment: a preference and a validation test in swine litters, to determine whether suckling piglets preferred alternative light colors in their creep area over white light; we also determined whether the preferred color affected piglet behavior. In the first stage, five trials of two consecutive days were performed, each at 21-day intervals. In each trial, 40 piglets, from three to five days old, from four F1 sows (Large White x Landrace), were distributed in four treatments, in a paired scheme, receiving the following treatments: Treatment GR: white light vs. green light ; Treatment BL: white light vs. blue light; Treatment YE: yellow light vs. white light; Treatment RD: white light vs. red light. For the validation test, three consecutive lots of eight F1 sows (Large White x Landrace) and their corresponding maternity were used, remaining from birth under the influence of treatments T_Gr and T_Wh, totaling three replicates. T_Gr corresponded to four creep areaswith green LED light and T_Wh to four nurseries with white LED light. The piglets showed a significant preference only for white over blue. Among the alternative colors, piglets significantly preferred green. In the validation stage, there was no significant effect of colors on the mean percentage of permanence of the piglets inside the creep areas over all evaluated periods. Piglets between two and five days of age prefer green lighting;however,in the creep area, the light color used did not influence piglet behavior.

scholarly journals Cascading effects of artificial light at night: resource-mediated control of herbivores in a grassland ecosystem

2015 ◽  
Vol 370 (1667) ◽  
pp. 20140131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Bennie ◽  
Thomas W. Davies ◽  
David Cruse ◽  
Richard Inger ◽  
Kevin J. Gaston
Keyword(s):  
Acyrthosiphon Pisum ◽  
Biological Effects ◽  
Spectral Composition ◽  
Artificial Light ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Light At Night ◽  
Specialist Herbivore ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact

Artificial light at night has a wide range of biological effects on both plants and animals. Here, we review mechanisms by which artificial light at night may restructure ecological communities by modifying the interactions between species. Such mechanisms may be top-down (predator, parasite or grazer controlled), bottom-up (resource-controlled) or involve non-trophic processes, such as pollination, seed dispersal or competition. We present results from an experiment investigating both top-down and bottom-up effects of artificial light at night on the population density of pea aphids Acyrthosiphon pisum in a diverse artificial grassland community in the presence and absence of predators and under low-level light of different spectral composition. We found no evidence for top-down control of A. pisum in this system, but did find evidence for bottom-up effects mediated through the impact of light on flower head density in a leguminous food plant. These results suggest that physiological effects of light on a plant species within a diverse plant community can have detectable demographic effects on a specialist herbivore.

scholarly journals The Influence of Different Light Wavelengths of Anthropogenic Light at Night on Nestling Development and the Timing of Post-fledge Movements in a Migratory Songbird

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeedeh Bani Assadi ◽  
Kevin C. Fraser
Keyword(s):  
White Light ◽  
Migratory Birds ◽  
Green Light ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Light At Night ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
Migration Timing ◽  
Nestling Development ◽  
Migratory Songbird ◽  
The Impact

Many different aspects of an animal’s lifecycle such as its behavior, patterns of hormone activity, and internal clock time, can be affected by anthropogenic light at night (ALAN). Exposing an organism to ALAN during its early life could also have an impact on its development. Since photoperiod can trigger or schedule the migration timing of long-distance migratory birds, there is great potential for anthropogenic light to interact with photoperiod to affect timing. However, very little has been investigated regarding the impacts of ALAN on post-hatching development and migration timing. We investigated the impact of ALAN during nestling development in a long-distance migratory songbird to determine the potential impact on the timing of post-breeding movements in the wild. We experimentally manipulated the light by using programmable lighting, in the nest boxes of free-living nestlings of purple martin (Progne subis) in Manitoba, Canada. We exposed two groups of developing nestlings, from hatch to fledge date, to green or white LED lights (5 lux) during the night. We also included a control group that experienced natural, ambient light at night. We found that some adults abandoned their nests shortly after starting the experiment (4 of 15 nests in the white light treatment). For the nests that remained active, nestlings exposed to the white light treatment had higher weights (at day 20 or 22), later fledge dates (1.54 ± 0.37, 95% CI 0.80–2.28), and later colony departure date (2.84 ± 1.00, 95% CI 0.88–4.81), than young of the control group. Moreover, nestlings of both white and green light groups had longer nesting duration than nestlings of the control group. This study demonstrates the impact of ALAN on the development of post-breeding movement timing in nestlings of wild migratory birds. However, our results also indicate that green light may have less of an impact as compared to white light.

scholarly journals Effects of Low-Level Artificial Light at Night on Kentucky Bluegrass and an Introduced Herbivore

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morgan C. Crump ◽  
Cassandra Brown ◽  
Robert J. Griffin-Nolan ◽  
Lisa Angeloni ◽  
Nathan P. Lemoine ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Poa Pratensis ◽  
Single Species ◽  
Kentucky Bluegrass ◽  
Light Treatment ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Acheta Domesticus ◽  
Artificial Light ◽  
Light At Night ◽  
Leaf Level ◽  
Low Levels

Increasing evidence suggests that artificial light at night (ALAN) can negatively impact organisms. However, most studies examine the impacts of ALAN on a single species or under high levels of artificial light that are infrequent or unrealistic in urban environments. We currently have little information on how low levels of artificial light emanating from urban skyglow affect plants and their interactions with herbivores. We examined how short-term, low levels of ALAN affect grass and insects, including growth rate, photosynthesis, and stomatal conductance in grass, and foraging behavior and survival in crickets. We compared growth and leaf-level gas exchange of Kentucky Bluegrass (Poa pratensis) under low-levels of ALAN (0.3 lux) and starlight conditions (0.001 lux). Furthermore, each light treatment was divided into treatments with and without house crickets (Acheta domesticus). Without crickets present, bluegrass grown under ALAN for three weeks grew taller than plants grown under natural night light levels. In the fourth week when crickets were introduced, grass height decreased resulting in no measurable effects of light treatment. There were no measurable differences in grass physiology among treatments. Our results indicate that low levels of light resulting from skyglow affect plant growth initially. However, with herbivory, the effects of ALAN on grass may be inconsequential. Gaining an understanding of how ALAN affects plant-insect interactions is critical to predicting the ecological and evolutionary consequences of anthropogenic light pollution.

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