Artificial Light at Night (ALAN) Is the Main Driver of Nocturnal Feral Pigeon (Columba livia f. domestica) Foraging in Urban Areas

AbstractArtificial light at night (ALAN) is one of the most extreme alterations of urban areas, which drives nocturnal activity by diurnal species. Although the Rock Dove (Columba livia) is a common species in urban centers worldwide known to have nocturnal activity in urban areas, it is unknown what is the role of ALAN in its nocturnal activity. Moreover, studies that address the relationship between ALAN and nocturnal activity of diurnal birds are scarce in the Southern hemisphere. The objectives of this study were: 1) to evaluate the extent of nocturnal activity in the Rock Dove in large cities of Argentina; and 2) to analyze the influence of ALAN, pedestrian traffic and car traffic on the nocturnal activity in two cities, Buenos Aires and Salta. I visited the most urbanized areas of five large cities in Argentina, and surveyed lighted streets once after 30 minutes after sunset. In Buenos Aires and Salta, I compared environmental conditions between sites were doves were seen feeding with random sites were doves were not recorded feeding. Nocturnal feeding of the Rock Dove was recorded in three of five cities surveyed. ALAN was positively related to nocturnal feeding activity in Salta and Buenos Aires. The results obtained suggest that urbanization promotes a nocturnal activity of the Rock Dove, which occurs in cities located in a vast range of altitudes and biogeographic contexts. Moreover, the nocturnal activity is mainly driven by ALAN, which probably alters the circadian rhythm of doves.

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Moving in the Dark—Evidence for an Influence of Artificial Light at Night on the Movement Behaviour of European Hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus)

Animals ◽

10.3390/ani10081306 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (8) ◽

pp. 1306

Author(s):

Anne Berger ◽

Briseida Lozano ◽

Leon M. F. Barthel ◽

Nadine Schubert

Keyword(s):

Light Intensity ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Species Conservation ◽

Urban Environments ◽

Artificial Light ◽

Movement Behaviour ◽

Light At Night ◽

Very High Frequency ◽

Erinaceus Europaeus ◽

The Mean

With urban areas growing worldwide comes an increase in artificial light at night (ALAN), causing a significant impact on wildlife behaviour and its ecological relationships. The effects of ALAN on nocturnal and protected European hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) are unknown but their identification is important for sustainable species conservation and management. In a pilot study, we investigated the influence of ALAN on the natural movement behaviour of 22 hedgehogs (nine females, 13 males) in urban environments. Over the course of four years, we equipped hedgehogs at three different study locations in Berlin with biologgers to record their behaviour for several weeks. We used Global Positioning System (GPS) tags to monitor their spatial behaviour, very high-frequency (VHF) loggers to locate their nests during daytime, and accelerometers to distinguish between active and passive behaviours. We compared the mean light intensity of the locations recorded when the hedgehogs were active with the mean light intensity of simulated locations randomly distributed in the individual’s home range. We were able to show that the ALAN intensity of the hedgehogs’ habitations was significantly lower compared to the simulated values, regardless of the animal’s sex. This ALAN-related avoidance in the movement behaviour can be used for applied hedgehog conservation.

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Artificial light at night alters life history in a nocturnal orb-web spider

10.7287/peerj.preprints.26943 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Nikolas J Willmott ◽

Jessica Henneken ◽

Caitlin J Selleck ◽

Therésa M Jones

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Future Research ◽

Artificial Light ◽

Light At Night ◽

Night Time ◽

Juvenile Mortality ◽

Web Spider ◽

Orb Web ◽

Juvenile Development

The prevalence of artificial light at night (ALAN) is increasing rapidly around the world. The potential physiological costs of this night lighting are often evident in life history shifts. We investigated the effects of chronic night-time exposure to ecologically relevant levels of LED lighting on the life history traits of the nocturnal Australian garden orb-web spider (Eriophora biapicata). We reared spiders under a 12-hour day and either a 12-hour natural darkness (~0 lux) or a 12-hour dim light (~20 lux) night and assessed juvenile development, growth and mortality, and adult reproductive success and survival. We found that exposure to ALAN accelerated juvenile development, resulting in spiders progressing through fewer moults, and maturing earlier and at a smaller size. There was a significant increase in daily juvenile mortality for spiders reared under 20 lux, but the earlier maturation resulted in a comparable number of 0 lux and 20 lux spiders reaching maturity. Exposure to ALAN also considerably reduced the number of eggs produced by females, largely associated with ALAN-induced reductions in body size. Despite previous observations of increased fitness for some orb-weavers in urban areas and near night lighting, it appears that exposure to artificial night lighting may lead to considerable developmental costs. Future research will need to consider the detrimental effects of ALAN combined with foraging benefits when studying nocturnal insectivores that forage around artificial lights.

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Artificial light at night alters life history in a nocturnal orb-web spider

10.7287/peerj.preprints.26943v1 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Nikolas J Willmott ◽

Jessica Henneken ◽

Caitlin J Selleck ◽

Therésa M Jones

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Future Research ◽

Artificial Light ◽

Light At Night ◽

Night Time ◽

Juvenile Mortality ◽

Web Spider ◽

Orb Web ◽

Juvenile Development

The prevalence of artificial light at night (ALAN) is increasing rapidly around the world. The potential physiological costs of this night lighting are often evident in life history shifts. We investigated the effects of chronic night-time exposure to ecologically relevant levels of LED lighting on the life history traits of the nocturnal Australian garden orb-web spider (Eriophora biapicata). We reared spiders under a 12-hour day and either a 12-hour natural darkness (~0 lux) or a 12-hour dim light (~20 lux) night and assessed juvenile development, growth and mortality, and adult reproductive success and survival. We found that exposure to ALAN accelerated juvenile development, resulting in spiders progressing through fewer moults, and maturing earlier and at a smaller size. There was a significant increase in daily juvenile mortality for spiders reared under 20 lux, but the earlier maturation resulted in a comparable number of 0 lux and 20 lux spiders reaching maturity. Exposure to ALAN also considerably reduced the number of eggs produced by females, largely associated with ALAN-induced reductions in body size. Despite previous observations of increased fitness for some orb-weavers in urban areas and near night lighting, it appears that exposure to artificial night lighting may lead to considerable developmental costs. Future research will need to consider the detrimental effects of ALAN combined with foraging benefits when studying nocturnal insectivores that forage around artificial lights.

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Delineating Functional Urban Areas Using a Multi-Step Analysis of Artificial Light-at-Night Data

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs13183714 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (18) ◽

pp. 3714

Author(s):

Nataliya Rybnikova ◽

Boris A. Portnov ◽

Igal Charney ◽

Sviatoslav Rybnikov

Keyword(s):

Population Density ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Census Data ◽

Low Frequency ◽

Global Scale ◽

Artificial Light ◽

Light At Night ◽

Commuting Flows ◽

Novel Approach ◽

City Population

A functional urban area (FUA) is a geographic entity that consists of a densely inhabited city and a less densely populated commuting zone, both highly integrated through labor markets. The delineation of FUAs is important for comparative urban studies and it is commonly performed using census data and data on commuting flows. However, at the national scale, censuses and commuting surveys are performed at low frequency, and, on the global scale, consistent and comparable data are difficult to obtain overall. In this paper, we suggest and test a novel approach based on artificial light at night (ALAN) satellite data to delineate FUAs. As ALAN is emitted by illumination of thoroughfare roads, frequented by commuters, and by buildings surrounding roads, ALAN data can be used, as we hypothesize, for the identification of FUAs. However, as individual FUAs differ by their ALAN emissions, different ALAN thresholds are needed to delineate different FUAs, even those in the same country. To determine such differential thresholds, we use a multi-step approach. First, we analyze the ALAN flux distribution and determine the most frequent ALAN value observed in each FUA. Next, we adjust this value for the FUA’s compactness, and run regressions, in which the estimated ALAN threshold is the dependent variable. In these models, we use several readily available, or easy-to-calculate, characteristics of FUA cores, such as latitude, proximity to the nearest major city, population density, and population density gradient, as predictors. At the next step, we use the estimated models to define optimal ALAN thresholds for individual FUAs, and then compare the boundaries of FUAs, estimated by modelling, with commuting-based delineations. To measure the degree of correspondence between the commuting-based and model-predicted FUAs’ boundaries, we use the Jaccard index, which compares the size of the intersection with the size of the union of each pair of delineations. We apply the proposed approach to two European countries—France and Spain—which host 82 and 72 FUAs, respectively. As our analysis shows, ALAN thresholds, estimated by modelling, fit FUAs’ commuting boundaries with an accuracy of up to 75–100%, being, on the average, higher for large and densely-populated FUAs, than for small, low-density ones. We validate the estimated models by applying them to another European country—Austria—which demonstrates the prediction accuracy of 47–57%, depending on the model type used.

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National Scale Spatial Variation in Artificial Light at Night

Remote Sensing ◽

10.3390/rs12101591 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (10) ◽

pp. 1591 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Daniel T.C. Cox ◽

Alejandro Sánchez de Miguel ◽

Simon A. Dzurjak ◽

Jonathan Bennie ◽

Kevin J. Gaston

Keyword(s):

Human Health ◽

National Parks ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Infrared Imaging ◽

Natural World ◽

Light Pollution ◽

Artificial Light ◽

Light At Night ◽

Challenges And Opportunities ◽

Per Capita

The disruption to natural light regimes caused by outdoor artificial nighttime lighting has significant impacts on human health and the natural world. Artificial light at night takes two forms, light emissions and skyglow (caused by the scattering of light by water, dust and gas molecules in the atmosphere). Key to determining where the biological impacts from each form are likely to be experienced is understanding their spatial occurrence, and how this varies with other landscape factors. To examine this, we used data from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) day/night band and the World Atlas of Artificial Night Sky Brightness, to determine covariation in (a) light emissions, and (b) skyglow, with human population density, landcover, protected areas and roads in Britain. We demonstrate that, although artificial light at night increases with human density, the amount of light per person decreases with increasing urbanization (with per capita median direct emissions three times greater in rural than urban populations, and per capita median skyglow eleven times greater). There was significant variation in artificial light at night within different landcover types, emphasizing that light pollution is not a solely urban issue. Further, half of English National Parks have higher levels of skyglow than light emissions, indicating their failure to buffer biodiversity from pressures that artificial lighting poses. The higher per capita emissions in rural than urban areas provide different challenges and opportunities for mitigating the negative human health and environmental impacts of light pollution.

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Artificial light at night alters life history in a nocturnal orb-web spider

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.5599 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 6 ◽

pp. e5599 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Nikolas J. Willmott ◽

Jessica Henneken ◽

Caitlin J. Selleck ◽

Therésa M. Jones

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Future Research ◽

Artificial Light ◽

Light At Night ◽

Night Time ◽

Juvenile Mortality ◽

Web Spider ◽

Orb Web ◽

Juvenile Development

The prevalence of artificial light at night (ALAN) is increasing rapidly around the world. The potential physiological costs of this night lighting are often evident in life history shifts. We investigated the effects of chronic night-time exposure to ecologically relevant levels of LED lighting on the life history traits of the nocturnal Australian garden orb-web spider (Eriophora biapicata). We reared spiders under a 12-h day and either a 12-h natural darkness (∼0 lux) or a 12-h dim light (∼20 lux) night and assessed juvenile development, growth and mortality, and adult reproductive success and survival. We found that exposure to ALAN accelerated juvenile development, resulting in spiders progressing through fewer moults, and maturing earlier and at a smaller size. There was a significant increase in daily juvenile mortality for spiders reared under 20 lux, but the earlier maturation resulted in a comparable number of 0 lux and 20 lux spiders reaching maturity. Exposure to ALAN also considerably reduced the number of eggs produced by females, and this was largely associated with ALAN-induced reductions in body size. Despite previous observations of increased fitness for some orb-web spiders in urban areas and near night lighting, it appears that exposure to artificial night lighting may lead to considerable developmental costs. Future research will need to consider the detrimental effects of ALAN combined with foraging benefits when studying nocturnal insectivores that forage around artificial lights.

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Cold Nights, City Lights: Artificial Light at Night Reduces Photoperiodically Induced Diapause in Urban and Rural Populations of Aedes albopictus (Diptera: Culicidae)

Journal of Medical Entomology ◽

10.1093/jme/tjaa139 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 57 (6) ◽

pp. 1694-1699 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Katie M Westby ◽

Kim A Medley

Keyword(s):

Local Adaptation ◽

Aedes Albopictus ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Activity Patterns ◽

Rapid Evolution ◽

Egg Laying ◽

Artificial Light ◽

Light At Night ◽

Diapause Incidence

Abstract As the planet becomes increasingly urbanized, it is imperative that we understand the ecological and evolutionary consequences of urbanization on species. One common attribute of urbanization that differs from rural areas is the prevalence of artificial light at night (ALAN). For many species, light is one of the most important and reliable environmental cues, largely governing the timing of daily and seasonal activity patterns. Recently, it has been shown that ALAN can alter behavioral, phenological, and physiological traits in diverse taxa. For temperate insects, diapause is an essential trait for winter survival and commences in response to declining daylight hours in the fall. Diapause is under strong selection pressure in the mosquito, Aedes albopictus (Skuse); local adaptation and rapid evolution has been observed along a latitudinal cline. It is unknown how ALAN affects this photosensitive trait or if local adaptation has occurred along an urbanization gradient. Using a common garden experiment, we experimentally demonstrated that simulated ALAN reduces diapause incidence in this species by as much as 40%. There was no difference, however, between urban and rural demes. We also calculated diapause incidence from wild demes in urban areas to determine whether wild populations exhibited lower than predicted incidence compared to estimates from total nocturnal darkness. In early fall, lower than predicted diapause incidence was recorded, but all demes reached nearly 100% diapause before terminating egg laying. It is possible that nocturnal resting behavior in vegetation limits the amount of ALAN exposure this species experiences potentially limiting local adaptation.

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Feral pigeon (Columba livia var. domestica) management in low-density urban areas: prevention is better than cure

Urban Ecosystems ◽

10.1007/s11252-019-00879-1 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 22 (6) ◽

pp. 1027-1035

Author(s):

Miguel Ángel Farfán ◽

Francisco Díaz-Ruiz ◽

Jesús Duarte ◽

Raimundo Real

Keyword(s):

Urban Areas ◽

Columba Livia ◽

Low Density ◽

Feral Pigeon ◽

Better Than

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Urban warming and artificial light alter dormancy in the flesh fly

Royal Society Open Science ◽

10.1098/rsos.210866 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (7) ◽

pp. 210866

Author(s):

Ayumu Mukai ◽

Koki Yamaguchi ◽

Shin G. Goto

Keyword(s):

Rural Areas ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Day Length ◽

Artificial Light ◽

Light At Night ◽

Night Time ◽

Strong Light ◽

Flesh Fly ◽

Rural And Urban ◽

Urban Warming

Seasonal changes in temperature and day length are distinct between rural and urban areas due to urban warming and the presence of artificial light at night. Many studies have focused on the impacts of these ubiquitous signatures on daily biological events, but empirical studies on their impacts on insect seasonality are limited. In the present study, we used the flesh fly Sarcophaga similis as a model insect to determine the impacts of urbanization on the incidence and timing of diapause (dormancy), not only in the laboratory but also in rural and urban conditions. In the laboratory, diapause entry was affected by night-time light levels as low as 0.01 lux. We placed fly cages on outdoor shelves in urban and rural areas to determine the timing of diapause entry; it was retarded by approximately four weeks in urban areas relative to that in rural areas. Moreover, almost all flies in the site facing an urban residential area failed to enter diapause, even by late autumn. Although an autumnal low temperature in the urban area would mitigate the negative effect of artificial light at night, strong light pollution seriously disrupts the flesh fly seasonal adaptation.

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